The list of companies that have tried and failed to build a sustainable business in this space is large -- from Kozmo.com (1998-2001)[a], Webvan (1996-2001)[b], and UrbanFetch (1999-2000)[c] during the "dotcom bubble" to the likes of Grubhub, Instacart, and Uber Eats in recent years.

So far, it seems that only tightly integrated operations with highly standardized food products for which the source/freshness/ripeness of ingredients is not an issue (e.g., boxed pizzas made from frozen manufactured components) have been able to make local on-demand delivery sustainable at a national or global scale.

The only "exceptions" would appear to be FreshDirect (founded by an owner of NYC's Fairway Market) and Peapod (operated by Giant supermarkets)... BUT both have grown more slowly and deliberately than the latest crop of startups, while maintaining tight/integrated control over all aspects of operations. Moreover, neither allows consumers to order on-demand -- consumers have to choose a predefined delivery window in advance, sometimes days in advance.[d]

[a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozmo.com

[b] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webvan

[c] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urbanfetch

[d] https://nypost.com/2020/03/15/nyc-freshdirect-delivery-times...