Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) is shutting down its restaurant delivery services in the United States, ending nearly four years of efforts to crack the market currently dominated by Grubhub(NYSE:GRUB), DoorDash, and Uber (NYSE:UBER) Eats. It will also shut down Daily Dish, the workplace lunch delivery service it launched in 2016.
Amazon already shut down its U.K. restaurant delivery services last year, so its stateside exit wasn’t surprising. However, Amazon retains a stake in the meal delivery market via its investment in Deliveroo, a British company that serves meals in over 200 cities worldwide.
Amazon’s decision to ax its own first-party services while staying invested through a start-up raises an interesting question: Why doesn’t it just buy Grubhub instead? I’m not saying that takeover will happen, but it makes sense for five simple reasons. They are:
1. Instant market
2. Prime ecosystem expansion leadership
3. Synergies with Amazon Flex
4. Marketing and logistics costs savings
5. A reasonable price tag