Dollar General puts 20,000 stores on Instacart

The news

Dollar General and its pOpshelf chain have launched same-day delivery through Instacart at about 20,000 stores in 48 states. Orders arrive in as little as 30 minutes.

The rollout follows a pilot at about 7,000 stores in six states, announced by the companies in September.
Items cost the same on Instacart as in stores, with no markup under the deal.
About 75% of Americans live within five miles of a Dollar General store.

Why it matters: Instacart adds another delivery channel for Dollar General, which already works with its own myDG app, DoorDash and Uber Eats. The partnership extends third-party delivery access across about 20,000 stores.

The details

Dollar General already offered delivery from about 18,000 stores through its myDG app and partnerships with DoorDash and Uber Eats. Customers tend to place larger orders than shoppers buying in stores, COO Emily Taylor said.

Taylor called delivery “a profitable business for us today” during the company's first-quarter earnings call.
Delivery has brought in more than a million customers, the company said.

Delivery added less to sales growth in the second quarter as in-store traffic picked up. Comparable sales rose 3.5% in the quarter ended July 31, helped by a 2% increase in customer traffic. It was the chain’s fifth consecutive quarterly gain.

Delivery added about 0.4 percentage point to comparable sales growth, down from 0.7 point in the first quarter.
The average basket increased 1.5%.

Two of Dollar General’s delivery partners could soon come under the same corporate umbrella, after DoorDash agreed to acquire Instacart for about $17 billion. DoorDash expects the deal to close in late 2027 or the first half of 2028, subject to US antitrust review and Instacart shareholder approval.

Instacart works with more than 2,200 retail banners covering nearly 100,000 stores.
DoorDash delivered from more than 18,000 Dollar General stores as of January.