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Uber is making new moves in the race to deliver fresh groceries fast

Uber Eats driver on the job while moving through a busy city street.
An Uber Eats driver on the job.

  • Uber is adding discounts on fresh groceries to its app.
  • The discounts, called “Fresh Days,” will apply to some produce, meat, dairy, and other fresh items.
  • It’s the latest move in the race to offer fast delivery on fresh groceries.

One of Uber‘s freshest offerings aims to deliver fruits and vegetables to users at a discount — and reinvigorate the grocery wars with rivals like Amazon.

On Thursday, Uber said it would release a “Fresh Days” feature that lets some users find discounts of up to 50% on fresh produce, meat, and dairy items. The weekly offer will have its own banner in the Uber Eats app, the company said.

The move is Uber’s latest effort to dominate in grocery delivery. It’s a crowded field with competition from companies like Amazon, which has been expanding its delivery range and partnerships with local grocers.

Uber cited grocery inflation over the last few years as one reason that the delivery service is offering the discounts.

“At Uber, we know how important fresh, affordable groceries are to families everywhere, especially these days,” Susan Anderson, Uber’s global head of delivery, said in a statement on Thursday.

Some of the offers are exclusive to members of the Uber One subscription program. For example, in the US, members get a 30% discount on fresh groceries every Tuesday, Uber said.

Uber also said it’s adding other new grocery shopping features, such as putting icons to items that are eligible for a refund if they don’t arrive fresh and substitutions for unavailable products provided by AI.

The additions are the latest effort by a retailer to bolster its delivery options, especially for apples, ice cream, and other fresh and perishable groceries.

Amazon said last month that it expanded free same-day delivery on perishable groceries in 1,000 cities and towns in the US. The chain plans to more than double that number by year’s end. It’s also offering delivery services for some regional grocers, such as Florida-based Winn-Dixie.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have said grocery delivery is becoming a big business, and they’re trying to build out their delivery muscle. For example, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said last month that shoppers have increasingly turned to the chain for grocery delivery. The company works with DoorDash and Uber Eats to deliver orders to customers’ homes.

Do you have a story to share about Uber or other gig work? Contact this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com or 808-854-4501.

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As drones disrupted Danish airports, they also turned up at an F-35 stealth fighter base

Two grey fighter jets on a runway with grass in the foreground and trees behind them
F-35 fighter jet pictured at the Skrydstrup base of the Royal Danish Air Force in Denmark in September 2023, the same base where Denmark reported drones.

  • Denmark said drones were spotted near an airbase for F-16s and F-35s as part of a professional “hybrid attack.”
  • Drones were also seen at airports, leading to their temporary closure.
  • The incidents, which were not blamed on a specific actor, follow repeated Russian violations of NATO airspace this month.

Amid what it described as a “hybrid attack,” NATO ally Denmark said drones were spotted near an airbase housing F-16 and F-35 fighter jets. Drones also disrupted airports across the country.

Danish officials reported drone sightings near multiple airports Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, with the military saying it saw drones at “several military installations.”

Among those bases was the Skrydstrup airbase, which houses Denmark’s fourth-generation F-16s and fifth-generation F-35 stealth fighters, the latter being among the most advanced combat airpower available in the NATO arsenal.

Drones led to the shutdown of Denmark’s Aalborg Airport, used for both commercial and military flights, for three hours. Billund Airport was down for an hour. Drones were also seen near the Esbjerg and Sonderborg airports. The incident came days after drones interrupted operations at Copenhagen airport.

A grey fighter jet in the sky
A Danish F-16 aircraft at Skrydstrup Air Base.

Denmark blamed no specific actor, but it did characterize it as a deliberate kind of attack. Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that “everything points to this being the work of a professional actor” and said “this is what I would define as a hybrid attack using different types of drones.” He said there was no immediate evidence that Russia was responsible. Police are investigating further.

Peter Hummelgaard, Denmark’s justice minister, said the motivation behind the recent attacks is “to create fear” and create division, saying no options are being ruled out for who is responsible.

NATO’s already on edge

The drone incidents in Denmark come at a time when NATO is already on edge due to recent Russian incursions, both with drones and fighter aircraft. Officials and experts suspect Russia is engaging in a shadow war, testing alliance defenses and responses.

Russian drones violated NATO ally Poland’s airspace earlier this month and were shot down by NATO jets, temporarily stopping an airport’s operations. Russia said the drones were not there intentionally, saying they veered off course, but Poland’s defense minister categorically rejected the claim and instead described it as a deliberate targeting of its sovereign airspace.

And then last week, Estonia reported that three Russian MiG-31 interceptor aircraft violated its airspace, staying for 12 minutes. Moscow said it never entered Estonian airspace.

MiG-31 Russian
MiG-31

And then Denmark’s Copenhagen airport closed on Monday due to drones. Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said she could not rule out Russia being responsible for that, calling it “the most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date.”

She said motives could be “to disrupt and create unrest, to cause concern, to see how far you can go and test the limits.” Russia called it a “staged provocation” and denied any involvement.

Defenses and responses

Recent events have sparked new concerns across NATO about how to defend airspaces from new and old threats, a concern already weighing heavily on the alliance from watching how Russia is fighting in Ukraine.

That war, in which Russia has launched huge drone and missile barrages into Ukraine, has shown NATO that it needs significantly more ground-based air defenses, something that has not been prioritized since the end of the Cold War.

The conflict, among other incidents, has also shown a need for strong, appropriate defenses against the threat of drones, which can be obtained cheaply and employed for reconnaissance and strike purposes against high-value targets. The low price point makes using expensive air-to-air missiles problematic, and some inexpensive electronic warfare solutions can’t be effectively employed in civilian areas, a challenge with certain kinetic options as well.

Michael Hyldgaard, Denmark’s chief of defence, said the drones seen on Wednesday and Thursday were not shot down to keep the population safe. Poulsen also said that the military is able to shoot down the drones, but added there isn’t a direct military threat against Denmark that requires doing so.

Recent events have, however, sparked new discussions about shooting down perceived threats within NATO airspace.

Lithuania’s parliament passed a law that authorized its armed forces to shoot down any drones that unlawfully enter its airspace, regardless of whether they directly pose a threat. Poland’s prime minister said that his country would shoot down a threatening aerial object that violates its airspace. And NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said alliance members could target any Russian combat aircraft that enter NATO airspace.

Others, like Sweden, have also issued warnings. A key challenge for NATO, though, is showing strength without risking possibly unnecessary escalation. Hybrid attacks, or gray zone aggression, only complicate things further.

Many countries say they are constantly fighting Russian hybrid threats, like cyber attacks, assassination attempts, interference in democracy, and signal jamming — real threats that are not traditionally met with a hard power response.

Amid debates on how to properly respond to these challenges, the frequency of incidents has been on the rise. Hummelgaard, while not pointing at Russia for the recent incident, said the hybrid threats Denmark is seeing are “here to stay,” saying there have been “deeply worrying incidents across Europe.”

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