i never understood why something like food / grocery delivery never took off with lyft/uber. they could partner with costco and do deliveries. I would love that.

Google Shopping Express already does this - I get my 50lb. bag of rice delivered on-demand to my house.

Uber would need to start understanding how ordering of goods works, returns, and service/quality complaints.

They could do it, but there are a whole lot of domain specific problems and approaches to resolve and it's not clear that's it's long-term viable.

They literally do this. It's also not that great. Want to pay $12.00 for a cold $8.00 sandwich? Safeway has its own delivery service in some markets and so does Amazon. Instacart does Costco delivery as well. Costco itself has business delivery at least and possibly other delivery options.

Yeah, but for Costco it actually makes sense. Costco sells items that are big, bulky and hard to transport, and they already do a ton of logistics - supply chain stuff is a big part of why they remain profitable. Uber is trying to do something that other people are already doing, better, for less cost, without experience. It isn't working out.

Does supply chain expertise really carry over to last mile delivery though? Especially hot food delivery. Seems like Uber's strength is getting to where the customer actually is instead of putting the product where it is most economical.

UberEATS