Emerging economies are a different story. Unemployment is usually high so there’s an abundance of workers to power the logistics behind these super apps.
In Europe we have something called ‘flash orders’, where your groceries are usually delivered within 10 minutes. Way crazier than same-day. Like you said, it does make one wonder if those companies (Gorillas, Flink, Getir) will ever be sustainable long term.
In India, you can order literally anything - it’s pretty cool. Checkout Dunzo or Grofers. The former even acts as a local courier or task runner.
Here in the West I just see it have the same trajectory as Uber. Investors pump in massive amounts of money which allows the service to be sold at a loss, then investors realize they’re not gonna have unicorn returns, at which point the companies jack their rates. And whereas Uber is still a better alternative to what it replaced (the fucked up taxi industry), flash order companies don’t really have that same “I’d rather still use them” boon.