100 percent in-store, 0 percent online: that is how the warehouse club’s bakery used to work until this week. As of November 14, 2026, Costco’s custom sheet cakes, 10-inch round cakes, sandwich platters, shrimp trays and fruit platters are available for same-day delivery through Instacart and sameday.costco.com for the first time, powered by FoodStorm Foodservice News. The interesting part is not the delivery but what happens to a stockout when the product is made to order instead of pulled from a shelf.
What FoodStorm actually changes about the perimeter
FoodStorm is Instacart's end-to-end order-management system built for grocery perimeter departments such as bakery, deli and prepared foods, where custom and made-to-order items have historically been a friction point for digital fulfilment. It routes an online order directly to Costco's in-warehouse bakery and deli teams, bridging the gap between a consumer-facing digital cart and a production-driven back-of-house workflow Restaurant Hospitality News. For a category where the SKU does not exist until a customer specifies it, that bridge is the whole product.
The operational weight is heavier than it looks. Coordinating advance customization windows, deli labor, cold-chain handoff to a delivery driver and real-time inventory visibility across hundreds of warehouse locations is materially harder than routing a packaged-goods order, especially for temperature-sensitive proteins like pre-cooked shrimp that need consistent refrigeration from prep through last-mile delivery. That is why the launch reads more like an operations claim than a marketing one.
The stockout definition flips for made-to-order
A traditional stockout is measured in units on a shelf. A perimeter stockout is measured in production capacity and lead time: can the bakery team assemble enough custom cakes before the event, and can the deli hold the cold chain to the door. For a brand or supplier watching this channel, the availability signal moves from a unit count to an advance-order window, and the gap a customer feels is a deadline missed rather than a shelf left empty F&B Industry News.
Why occasion-driven categories lead the charge
Party platters and custom cakes carry strong basket-size implications, and routing them through a delivery platform extends their reach to members who would not make a warehouse trip solely for event planning. That economics argument is why warehouse clubs and traditional grocers are under pressure to close the digital gap on high-attachment, occasion-driven categories first, even though they are the hardest to digitize.
What an operator should watch
| Signal | What it means |
|---|---|
| Advance-order window | Whether production can keep pace with demand |
| Cold-chain handoff rate | Where temperature-sensitive items fail |
| Customization completion rate | Whether the digital cart captures the order correctly |
The deeper shift is that grocery technology platforms are moving beyond last-mile logistics into production-workflow routing. Instacart acquired FoodStorm precisely to address the made-to-order gap, and its integration with a retailer of Costco's scale validates that the technology can handle high-volume, customization-heavy SKUs. For suppliers, the implication is that the product record now has to describe a made-to-order item accurately enough for a machine and a production team to agree on what was ordered.
The launch also narrows the gap between the perimeter and the rest of the store. For years, bakery and deli have been the highest-margin, hardest-to-digitize departments, left behind by the packaged-goods aisle because a custom cake has no stable SKU to photograph. FoodStorm closes that gap by making the production team, rather than the shelf, the point of integration, which is why the announcement is being read as a signal of where grocery e-commerce goes next.
FAQ
Why are made-to-order platters so hard to sell online?
They are perishable, customizable and produced behind the counter, so a digital cart has to reach a production team, not a shelf. FoodStorm routes an online customization request directly to the in-warehouse bakery and deli team, bridging the gap between the cart and production.
What does this change for a grocer's stockout measurement?
A perimeter platter is assembled to order, so availability depends on advance-order windows, ingredient prep and cold-chain handoff. A stockout is measured in production capacity and lead time rather than units on a shelf.
Which categories benefit most from perimeter digitization?
Occasion-driven categories such as custom cakes, sandwich platters, shrimp trays and fruit platters carry the strongest basket-size and advance-planning intent, which is why clubs push them online first despite the complexity.
How should an operator pick a catering order-management partner?
Look for routing that connects the digital cart to production workflow, not just last-mile logistics. The differentiator is whether the system handles high-volume, customization-heavy SKUs with temperature control.
