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Hi there,
For a brief few days, my evenings involved puzzle-solving at Indonesia’s minimarket chains – Alfamart and Indomaret – trying to guess from the packaging what the food inside tasted like. After all, half of the fun of being a tourist in a foreign country lies in the joy of discovering what treasures the local supermarket aisles hold.
And to have those treasures delivered in 10 to 15 minutes? That’s a separate ball game altogether, as my colleague Jofie details in the Big Story for this week.
As a customer making the best of India’s supercharged quick commerce scene, it’s interesting to see how its Indonesian counterpart is aggregating the best parts of multiple models in the grocery delivery space.
Finding that sweet spot between sustainability and growth is the goal for those in the grocery delivery space. But sometimes, it doesn’t matter if your strategies and execution are on point, or if you’ve got the right number of downloads, active customers, or sellers on your platform. In some cases, something behind the stage just isn’t right.
Thumbs up to those who’ve guessed we’re talking about Shopee India. More on this in today’s Hot Take.
— Nikita
THE BIG STORY
The rise of quick commerce in Indonesia

Image credit: Timmy Loen
Fifteen-minute instant grocery deliveries are taking off in Indonesia, where new players have emerged. But achieving success means performing a delicate balancing act.
THE HOT TAKE
Making sense of Shopee’s hasty exit from India

Image credit: Timmy Loen
NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW
FYI
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