The Delivery Wars Just Shifted: Why Ace Hardware's Uber Eats Deal Matters for Retail Supply Chains

Ace Hardware's new partnership with Uber Eats to deliver home improvement and gardening supplies from over 3,700 stores represents far more than a tactical logistics move. It signals a fundamental realignment in how brick-and-mortar retailers are solving their last-mile problem—and it reveals which supply chain operators are winning and losing in the battle for same-day delivery dominance.

The deal matters now because it demonstrates that third-party delivery platforms are becoming essential infrastructure for traditional retailers, not optional add-ons. For supply chain leaders, this isn't just about Ace Hardware or Uber. It's about recognizing that the economics of proprietary delivery networks no longer favor most retailers outside the Walmart and Amazon tier, and that outsourcing to platform operators is increasingly the default strategy.

The Consolidation of Last-Mile Power

What's happening in the marketplace is a quiet but significant consolidation. Just four years ago, retailers had dozens of logistics partners to choose from. Today, the choice is narrowing to a handful of dominant platforms: Uber Eats, DoorDash, Amazon, and a handful of proprietary networks like Walmart's and Target's (via Shipt). Ace Hardware's move accelerates this trend by expanding Uber Eats beyond food into general retail—a category that includes home repair supplies, beauty products, and electronics.

This consolidation has major implications. When delivery capacity becomes concentrated among a few operators, those operators gain pricing power. They also gain control over customer relationships and data. Retailers that have already invested in proprietary logistics infrastructure—Walmart and Target—have built defensible moats. But for everyone else, including a network of independently-owned stores like Ace, outsourcing to a platform provider reduces capital risk and provides immediate scale.

DoorDash has already moved aggressively into this space by building its own warehouse network to forward-stock goods for retailers. Uber Eats is taking a different approach: leveraging existing retail locations as distributed fulfillment centers. Both models work, but they reveal different philosophies about control and efficiency. The choice between these approaches—centralized warehouses versus store-based fulfillment—will define supply chain strategy for the next five years.

What This Means for Your Supply Chain

For supply chain teams, the Ace-Uber Eats partnership creates several immediate considerations:

Inventory distribution changes. When stores become fulfillment centers, inventory management becomes dramatically more complex. Ace now needs systems to determine which products stock at which stores to satisfy both in-store shoppers and delivery demand. Stockouts at peak delivery times can damage customer satisfaction on a channel you don't fully control.

Service level dependencies. By outsourcing delivery to Uber Eats, Ace Hardware trades capital expenditure for operational dependency. If Uber's drivers experience capacity constraints or service quality drops, Ace bears the reputational cost even though it doesn't control the delivery experience. Supply chain teams must build monitoring and contingency plans for third-party performance failures.

Data and customer insight gaps. When delivery happens through a third-party app, Ace loses direct customer contact data. This reduces the company's ability to optimize for customer preferences and creates long-term competitive vulnerability against retailers that own their customer relationship.

For retailers still building proprietary delivery networks, the math is becoming clearer: unless you operate at Walmart's scale, you're likely better off outsourcing. The fixed costs of maintaining your own fleet and technology infrastructure are difficult to justify unless you're moving enough volume to achieve unit economics below what third-party providers charge.

What Comes Next

Expect this consolidation to accelerate. As Uber and DoorDash establish category expertise beyond food, they'll become attractive partners for other retail segments—hardware, beauty, grocery, pharmacy. Retailers will face increasing pressure to choose a platform partner rather than build independently.

The real competitive battleground won't be last-mile delivery anymore. It will be inventory positioning, demand prediction, and the ability to fulfill orders from dispersed store networks efficiently. That's where supply chain excellence will determine success.

Source: FreightWaves