For those of us who refuse to leave our hovels but for once every blue moon or so, meal delivery has been a major enhancement to our existence. 

Everyone from Kylie Jenner to your reclusive neighbor who apparently hasn’t left his house in months makes use of the helpful invention. And whether it’s because you’re in a pinch or simply don’t want to turn the oven on and make chicken for the eighth straight day in a row, you probably have used it too. 

Related: Uber shutting down popular billion-dollar service

But it’s not just our sustenance that relies on food delivery apps. It may be said that many restaurants’ very survival hinged on working with the top apps, particularly as many folks stayed at home during the 2020-2021 years. 

With the space accruing, IPO-ing, and consolidating over the past several years, there are a couple of key players that now remain to compete over market share. UberEats and Postmates  (UBER) – Get Free Report are popular especially on the west coast. Seamless and Grubhub are more of a New York thing. But DoorDash  (DASH) – Get Free Report remains the most popular in terms of downloads (it’s the top free food app on Apple’s app store) and claims the most market share, at 65%, give or take.

Especially on high volume days, like games of high national interest or snow days, these apps compete on a fierce level to outdo their competitors. I, for example, pay for DoorDash but my UberEats app is consistently sending me promotions to attract me to its platform instead. Sometimes it works. Fifty percent off your next three meals is a tough thing to pass up. 

DoorDash adds new popular brands

But DoorDash hasn’t taken the promotional route to grow its business. Instead, it’s been working to cut down on delivery time and ramp up the number of vendors it works with. 

It has been plugging away at an impressive clip; DoorDash currently works with over 500,000 merchants to deliver things like food, grocery, outdoor equipment, pet food, and alcohol. As of 2024, DoorDash claims over 100,000 non-restaurant vendors on its platform. 

And in January, DoorDash announced it will add four new merchants to its lineup. They are: 

1. Camping World
2. Golf Galaxy
3. JD Sports & Finish Line
4. The Vitamin Shoppe

And for the rest of January, shoppers can apply promo code “NEWYOU20” to get 20% off from these new stores. 

The addition of these brands brings the tally to nearly one million sporting goods items, 400,000 pet products, and 300,000 home and beauty products available on the DoorDash marketplace. DoorDash says it offers access to more retail shopping than any other marketplace in North America.

Despite its rapid addition of new stores, DoorDash is still yet to turn a profit — a common thread in the delivery app space. 

Its Q3 ended September 2023 saw a net income of -$73 million (a 75% increase year-over-year). Uber, for its part, saw a net income of $221 million during its Q3 2023, though it has historically struggled to turn a profit and makes far more on ride sharing than food delivery overall (though that segment is steadily growing, too).