
In late 2020, the grocery behemoth Ahold Delhaize announced it would buy online food retailer FreshDirect. At the time, the Netherlands-based owner of large U.S. supermarket chains such as Stop & Shop and Food Lion said the deal would help build its e-commerce muscle and give it an inroad into New York City's fast-growing online food-shopping market.
Alas, that boost to its business was not to be. Ahold Delhaize, the 12th largest U.S. retailer with $60 billion in sales in 2023, announced last month that it was selling FreshDirect to grocery delivery service Getir after less than three years, bowing to the cutthroat grocery e-commerce market. Ahold Delhaize is No. 25 on the Fortune 500 Europe list.