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For decades, grocers—especially regional and multi-regional options—served as the natural starting point of the shopping journey. Even as e-commerce grew, and marketplaces like Instacart inserted themselves between the shopper and the store, the customer still began with the grocer. The grocer's identity and what it stood for— "I shop at H-E-B, not X" or "I shop at Publix, not Y"—still mattered in the customer's mind, even when the transaction flowed through an intermediary.
That era is ending. The introduction of Instacart checkout inside ChatGPT signals the emergence of a new hierarchy. For the first time, shoppers can start the journey somewhere else: They simply initiate a conversation about their purpose for shopping, e.g., "I want to make apple pie," and everything that follows takes place without the grocer entering the conversation.
What Instacart tried to disintermediate, AI will displace.
This white paper explores what this shift means for grocery, the lessons from industries that have already been disrupted, and the strategic moves required for regional players to preserve their relevance. While the disruption will unfold gradually, the stakes are immediate. When AI becomes the starting point of the customer journey, power moves upstream and grocers that fail to assert themselves risk becoming invisible in their own category.
Continue to read the full report below.
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