WMT Walmart Inc

By Greg Bensinger and Lauren Weber 

Retail giants including Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are again betting consumers will skip a second slice of pumpkin pie to shop Thanksgiving evening.

This year, they will be challenged by a host of startups, plus e-commerce titan Amazon.com Inc., offering to deliver a last-minute bottle of wine, a bag of stuffing mix or a DVD, in an hour or less.

Startups vying to ensure that consumers leave home as infrequently as possible don't want to miss out on the U.S.'s most gluttonous holiday. Amazon is joining the party, offering its Prime Now one-hour delivery service on Thanksgiving in nearly two dozen metropolitan areas.

The competition to keep Americans sated and gifted can disrupt workers on the nation's most commonly observed workplace holiday. The Society for Human Resource Management says 94% of employers give workers time off on Thanksgiving, more than Christmas or any other day.

Many of the delivery services classify their workers as contractors rather than employees. They are relying on the prospect of bigger paydays to lure them into working on Thursday.

That persuaded Vazgen Aroutiounian, a 29-year-old Los Angeles resident, to sign up for a six-hour shift on Thanksgiving with beverage-delivery company Saucey Inc. Mr. Aroutiounian said he will make $15 an hour, $5 an hour more than typical, plus $2 per delivery, while his family celebrates the holiday nearby.

"I see my family all the time so it's not a big deal if I miss out on Thanksgiving," he said, adding that there is a fringe benefit for a Southern Californian. "People say L.A. has really bad traffic, but Thanksgiving is one of the least trafficky days of the year. It's kind of magical."

Saucey, Drizly Inc. and Thirstie Inc. are among several alcohol-delivery services hoping to cash in Thursday by ferrying libations to customers in about an hour.

"As you might imagine, we get a lot of wine orders on Thanksgiving," said Chris Vaughn, Saucey's chief executive. "If you realize you're running out of wine, it's certainly better to make an order on your smartphone" than to find an open store to get more.

Drizly and Thirstie send online and mobile-phone orders to local liquor stores, which typically dispatch couriers to customers' homes, charging a delivery fee of $5 or less in most cases. Thirstie said it expects four times the volume of orders on Thanksgiving as a typical Thursday.

Uber Technologies Inc. alerts drivers when it is expecting high demand, and invokes so-called surge pricing if the supply of drivers on the road isn't high enough to meet rider requests. The higher pay can entice some Uber drivers into their cars.

But it is less of a factor for Austin, Texas, driver Romain Nayalkar, who said he is more likely to log into Uber Thursday if he is bored or his wife and children are occupied after they finish their Thanksgiving meal at a local restaurant.

For consumers who want food as well as alcohol, grocery-delivery service Instacart Inc. will fetch goods Thursday from Safeway Inc., Whole Foods Market Inc. and other stores. An Instacart spokeswoman said the company will deliver in nearly 20 U.S. metropolitan areas until 2 p.m.

Michelle Smith, of Potomac, Md., said she used Instacart last weekend to obtain a turkey and ingredients for stuffing and pumpkin pie for the Thanksgiving meal she is hosting for eight.

Outsourcing the choice of the 12-pound bird to an Instacart worker was a bit nerve-racking, she said, but worth it for the convenience. She said she might use the service again on Thursday if her supplies--such as cream for coffee or beverages--run low.

Amazon will deliver alcohol on Thanksgiving, but only in its hometown Seattle. In addition to the tens of thousands of items the Web retailer typically offers through Prime Now, it is also selling themed items like Thanksgiving tablecloths and deals as part of its week of Black Friday discounts, said a spokeswoman.

Amazon will offer its Flex service, which allows nonprofessionals to make deliveries, similar to how Uber lines up drivers.

In California, where medical marijuana is legal, Eaze Solutions LLC is offering price cuts of up to 77% on Thanksgiving deliveries of edible products like sea salt chocolate bon bons and "relax mints," both infused with marijuana's active ingredient. The service relies on a network of licensed dispensaries to make deliveries in as fast as about 15 minutes.

"If you can spend more time with your family and not have to rush out to get the things you need on Thanksgiving, then that's a good thing for everyone," said Eaze CEO Kevin McCarty.

Lindsay Gellman contributed to this article.

Write to Greg Bensinger at greg.bensinger@wsj.com and Lauren Weber at lauren.weber@wsj.com

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 24, 2015 20:06 ET (01:06 GMT)

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