Picture the grocery bags on your porch. Soon the same company may bring them whether you ordered through DoorDash or Instacart. DoorDash (DASH) is in advanced talks to buy Instacart (CART), the Journal's Heather Haddon and Lauren Thomas report. A deal could come as soon as this week. It could value Instacart at around $17 billion.
Instacart was worth about $13 billion before the news broke. So $17 billion is roughly 30% more, a normal premium for a takeover. Its shares rose 7.9% Monday. DoorDash's fell 6.1%. That pattern is common. The buyer's shareholders worry about the price. The seller's cheer. DoorDash is worth around $73 billion, so it can afford the bite. The Journal's sources say the deal could still fall apart.
Why DoorDash wants the cart
DoorDash made its name bringing restaurant meals to the door, and it leads that business by a wide margin. It's been adding stores. It already delivers from Kroger, Safeway and Aldi, and from brands like Macy's, CVS and Target. It's even testing drones and orders sent by text to a chatbot. Instacart is the big name in online grocery. Buying it adds a grocery partner in one move. Instacart went public in 2023. It had looked at a sale back in 2021, when its stock was much higher and it held more of the market. Since then, Walmart (WMT) and Amazon (AMZN) have gotten a lot tougher at groceries. Uber kicked the tires too. Those talks are over, the Journal's sources said.
Here's the household part. Every delivered grocery order carries a stack of small charges. A service fee. A delivery fee. A tip. And often a higher shelf price than the store charges in person. None of those are headline numbers. Together they can turn a hundred-dollar trip into something well above it. Fewer big delivery apps usually means less reason for any of them to cut those fees.
Our read
This is a Cash Flow story, the M5 kind. Delivery is a convenience, and convenience has a price. The trap is that the price hides in five small lines instead of one big one. Most households we've seen can't say what delivery cost them last month. They can say what the groceries cost. The fees and the markup ride along unnoticed. If a bigger DoorDash owns both apps, don't count on those lines shrinking. Walmart and Amazon are held at weight in 12 and 19 books; nothing added. DoorDash and Instacart aren't held, and we're not chasing a deal that may not close.
The concrete thing in your plan is the grocery line in your budget. This week, open your last three delivery receipts and add up only the fees, the tips and the markup. Leave the food out. That number is what convenience cost you. If you're fine with it, great, it's a real choice. If it surprises you, one in-person trip a week fixes most of it. Knowing the number is the whole point. That's what a review is for.