Grocery delivery service launches in Niagara
Instacart, the fast-growing retail delivery service, together with Loblaw Cos. Ltd. has expanded into the Niagara Falls and St. Catharines areas to serve more than 228,000 households.
This expansion launched Wednesday, following Instacart’s and Loblaw’s initial launch in Toronto last December.
Niagara Falls and St. Catharines area residents can now order from Zehrs and Real Canadian Superstore and have their groceries and everyday essentials delivered straight to their doorsteps in as little as one hour.
Instacart officials said they received an overwhelming volume of requests for expansion into Niagara.
Service areas include Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Thorold.
Instacart will serve these postal codes: L2V, L2W, L2T, L2S, L2R, L2P, L2N, L2M, L2J, L2G, L2H, L2E.
“We see clustered demand in the Niagara Falls/St. Catharines region, so we go where there is demand and where our retail partners are ready to launch with us,” said Andy Anthony, general manager of Instacart in Canada.
He said there’s “absolutely” the possibility for the service to expand elsewhere in Niagara.
“We’re always looking for new opportunities to expand, unlock new retailers, open up the service to new customers and new shoppers, so as soon as we’re ready, as soon as we’ve reached that critical mass like we have in Niagara Falls/St. Catharines, we’ll definitely be doing that.”
Anthony said Instacart is also bringing income earning opportunities to the area with plans to bring on more than 100 new shoppers.
“Expansion into the St. Catharines and Niagara Falls regions gives us an opportunity to provide this innovative service to more people in Canada,” he said.
“We’re also excited to build a world-class shopper community where we can offer fun and flexible income-earning opportunities for our shoppers, who ultimately deliver this amazing service to the community.”
Jeremy Pee, senior vice-president of ecommerce for Loblaw, said the grocery company is “always” looking for new ways to make shopping more convenient.
“The option of home delivery complements our in-store and pick-up experiences to provide our customers with convenience and quality, however they want to shop with us,” he said.
Customers can go online to instacart.ca or open the Instacart mobile app on their iPhone or Android device, select their city/ store, add items to a virtual cart, then choose a delivery window — within one hour, two hours, or up to five days in advance — and check out.
An Instacart shopper accepts the order on their smartphone, uses the Instacart shopper app to guide them through shopping, and then delivers the order to the customer in the designated delivery timeframe.
“A good example is if you like smoked turkey, but you like it sliced really thin, you would specify that as a preference in the app, or if you’re buying an avocado, but you don’t want it today, you want it three days from now, so you want it to be sort of hard, you could specify that,” said Anthony.
“The shopper sees all your notes, can communicate with you in real time, if that’s your preference as a customer — a shopper can interact with you, ask you questions if they see something that sort of stands out that may not fully satisfy your grocery order — and then once that order is completed, they’ll check out, and they’ll bring it right to your house during that specified delivery window.”
For orders of $35 or more, the delivery fee is $3.99.
For orders less than $35, the delivery fee is $7.99.
Customers can sign up for an Instacart Express membership, which enables unlimited, free same-day delivery on orders of $35 or more.
After a free trial period, membership is $9.99 a month or $99 a year.
First-time users can enter the code HISTCATHARINES at checkout to get $20 off an order of $35 or more, plus a free firsttime delivery. The code expires March 31.
New customers can open an account at instacart.ca.
Founded in San Francisco in 2012, Instacart has grown to more than 190 markets and partnered with retailers across North America.