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.
