Supermarket-chain grocery delivery optimization through courier coordination

Considering grocery delivery optimization for the supermarket chain, this paper proposes a coordinative grocery delivery service (CGDS) strategy which is implementable by the supermarket-chain enterprise. By coordinating courier resources, the CGDS mode enhances the operational efficiency of grocery delivery for the supermarket chain adopting the individually-operated grocery delivery service (IOGDS) mode, where all stores separately run their delivery service. For the deterministic supermarket-chain CGDS problem, this study presents a mathematical programming model using the arc-flow and set-partitioning formulations, accounting for unique properties such as multiple depots and shared heterogeneous couriers. A branch-and-price-and-cut method incorporating two categories of valid inequalities is developed, along with an implicit enumeration algorithm for the pricing subproblem to meet the pickup-and-delivery requirements. The computational experiments on both the benchmark and newly-generated instance sets demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed solution methods. The experimental results also highlight the clear advantage of the CGDS mode over the IOGDS mode, offering relevant strategic insights for the supermarket-chain operators.