Why dollar stores are embracing delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash

While Uber has had grocery and retail partnerships since 2020, Family Dollar is Uber’s first national partner in the discount retail space, a category Nathan Bernheim, head of grocery and retail enterprise sales at Uber, said is key to the company’s growing retail business.

“It signals a major step forward in bringing more value-focused choices to delivery,” Bernheim said in an interview, adding that people are looking for ways to stretch their dollars without sacrificing convenience. “Everyday options matter now more than ever.”

Many of Family Dollar’s customers were already Uber customers, but the partnership could also reach shoppers who are younger and more digitally-native than those who typically shop at Family Dollar, Bernheim said. “This really helps extend Family Dollar’s reach while giving Uber customers more affordable options right in the app,” he said.

In a statement, Bonita Price, chief merchandising officer for Family Dollar, agreed. “The Uber Eats demographics complement the diversity and location of our existing customers and stores and their desire for convenience,” Price said, adding that it will drive long-term customer loyalty. “The Uber Eats partnership will introduce new customers into Family Dollar including young, diverse and urban customers with disposable income.”

Additionally, the partnership could help more rural Family Dollar locations reach shoppers using Uber Eats in urban areas. On the flip side, it adds more options for Uber in rural areas as the company seeks more partnerships outside of big cities; more partnerships with rural stores are in the funnel for future months, Bernheim said. There are more than 7,500 Family Dollar stores across the country. Many of its locations are in Southern states like North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama.

This comes as, last week, Amazon announced it would invest $4 billion in its rural delivery network. “[Family Dollar’s] move into online delivery via Uber Eats helps it remain competitive by offering similar conveniences in these markets and leveraging its stores as fulfillment centers similar to Walmart and other retailers,” Kantar analyst Barry Thomas, a former longtime Coca-Cola executive, told Modern Retail.

Still, Thomas cautioned that relying on third-party services could present challenges for dollar stores in maintaining service quality and customer satisfaction, especially when ensuring timely and accurate deliveries in rural areas.

While these partnerships are especially relevant to the current consumer environment, dollar store and delivery app partnerships have been growing and expanding since the pandemic, as some of the largest dollar store chains have looked for ways to win back both low-income people squeezing their wallets and higher earners searching for value.

In 2021, Dollar General and DoorDash partnered to deliver groceries and home goods from 16,000 stores. Lessons learned from that initiative led Dollar General to begin offering its own same-day delivery service from about 75 stores last September. “Our goal is to drive greater customer loyalty within the digital platform while ultimately increasing market share and accelerating growth,” Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said on an earnings call in December.

Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, though they share similar names, each serve different customer bases: Dollar General and Family Dollar skew more toward lower-income customers, while Dollar Tree has a broader customer base that includes more middle- and upper-income households.

Family Dollar has also offered delivery through Instacart, a partnership that began as a pilot in 2020 and expanded to include almost 7,000 Dollar Trees in October 2021, according to Supermarket News.

For now, Dollar Tree Inc. still owns both Family Dollar and Dollar Tree. The company said in March that Brigade Capital Management LP and Macellum Capital Management would buy Family Dollar for just over $1 billion. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter, pending regulatory approvals.

Dollar Tree Inc. reported a $3 billion net loss between February 2024 to February 2025. Dollar General, on the other hand, saw net income of $1.1 billion over about the same period.

“I do think the economy taking a turn toward recession was already going to be helping dollar stores make their needed comeback, but this doesn’t hurt,” said Melissa Minkow, director of retail strategy for technology firm CI&T. “In a lot of ways, this is the equivalent to a brand deciding to sell via Amazon in addition to its own channels — it’s about visibility, reach and convenience. Many consumers look to these delivery apps first because of how convenient they are.”