Target purchases grocery delivery service for $550M

What the truck is going on with big-box retailersꦇ?

Target on Wednesday became the latest big-boxer♊ to join the equivalent of the arms’ race for retailers — same-day delivery — with its purchase of Shipt, a grocery-delivery service.

Target made the $550 million deal to compete in what is becoming a must-have service for retailers. While being able to offer customer same-day, store-to-fro💟nt-door delivery doesn’t guarantee success,𝕴 not having the service could spell doom for chains.

In October, archrival Walmart purchased Parcel, which will help it get pac✨kages to Big Apple residents’ homes within 24 hours.

That followed an announcement a month earlier by the discount giant, saying it wa🔯s testing smart home technology that would allow Walmart wor🗹kers to enter customers’ homes and put just-purchased groceries right into a refrigerator.

Amazon dangled its own offer on Wednesday, expanding a 30-day free trial of its Pr♊ime service for last-minute shoppers to include free shipping on two-day, one-day and same-day orders through Dec. 24.

“The team fജrom Minneapolis is no longer sitting on its heels,” Gordon Haskett analyst Chuck Grom wrote in a research note,🦩 referring to Target’s hometown.

“What remains clear🅠 to us is that same-day delivery will soon be par for the course in the same way free two-day shipping has become standard in recent years,” Haskett said.

The Shipt acquisition is expected to close by Dec. 3💜1, and the cheap-chic chain is set on offering same-day delivery from half its US stores within six months — and f♏rom all stores by the end of 2018.

Target has 𒁏been testing same-day deli๊very with Shipt competitor Instacart in several markets, including New York City.

Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods, which upended the grocery industry with supermarkets eyeing a way to revamp their e-commerce strategy, also served as a catalyst for these𒊎 developments.

Shipt will be a wholly owned Target subsidiary, but it wil🐽l continue to run its business i♎ndependently keeping its partnerships with other retail chains, the companies said.

✃Tar✤get shares on Wednesday jumped 2.7 percent, to $62.67, but are down 13 percent year to date.