Gerry Palmers Tech 08.16.2022 01:Aug AM EDT

Uber Eats Now Delivers Office, School Supplies From Office Depot, OfficeMax

Worried about that wild scramble to get your child's back-to-school supplies? Worry not, because Uber Eats has entered into a partnership with Office Depot and OfficeMax to deliver school and office supplies from the retailer's 900 stores across the U.S. If your child needs those pens, pencils, art supplies in class, you can have them delivered right away.

Starting Monday, Uber Eats customers can place orders from 900 Office Depot and OfficeMax locations across the country. "From ink and toner, to backpacks, binders, and more, consumers will be able to shop for thousands of items and have them delivered right to their door," an Uber Eats statement read.

More Perks for Uber One Subscribers

For Uber One subcribers, the delivery fee will be waived and also a five percent discount is an added bonus for purchases of at least $15. Uber didn't mention other office supply stores it is partnering with, but said Office Depot and OfficeMax stores were the "first."

From handling food deliveries, Uber has expanded its deliveries to deliver a wider array of items, from groceries to medicine. Similar to Doordash, Uber Eats is fast transitioning into being a general delivery service provider. Uber Eats also enjoys a good reputation for its delivery speed, clocked in mere minutes, rather than hours or days spent consumers wait for rivals to deliver their items.

Uber on Acquisition Spree

In this expansion, Uber smaller startups in recent months, such as Postmates, Cornershop, and Drizly. The company also recently partnered with Gopuff, which delivers essential or instant need items, such as over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, beauty and pet products, snacks, and liquor.

Uber Fares Surge Amid Decades High Inflation

Using Uber the traditional way - to book a vehicle to get to a certain destination --- has never been as expensive. Fares have shot up by 40 percent. Uber, however, also recently reported $382 million in free cash flow for the first time ever, a sign that the company's efforts to cut down on costs have started to pay off, even decades-high inflation has crippled consumer spending.

U.S. consumers are burdened by skyrocketing food prices. The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Wednesday, August 10 showed that in July, food prices surged 10.9 percent year over year. The BLS report said food at home, such as grocery products increased 13.1 percent year over year, while food away from home, such asorders from restaurants rose 7.6 percent.

Uber said in the previous quarter it was not expecting to see the need for the company to boost incentives to lure drivers, as rival Lyft was forced to invest more to guarantee a consistent supply of cab rides.

Other delivery services, such as Deliveroo, reported slides in their revenue forecasts due to a worsening economy, triggering doubts on growth prospects for delivery companies.

Even as ride sharing firms embarked on a recovery run this year, growth can still be under threat with driver shortages amid gas price hikes.

Despite this, Uber is expected to report second quarter revenue of $7.39 billion, which is up 88.2 percent from the same period last year.