Same-day grocery delivery service expands into region

Instacart bills itself as an ‘on-demand’ business

An online grocery delivery service that entered the Connecticut market earlier this year has begun serving more than a dozen towns in what it refers to as the Norwich area, filling orders from Big Y, CVS and Petco stores in a matter of hours.

Instacart, a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2012, expanded Wednesday into the Norwich, New Haven, Waterbury and Torrington areas. It made its Connecticut debut during the spring and summer in the Bridgeport, Danbury, Hartford and Stamford areas, Kyle Carnes, the company’s Northeast operations manager, said Monday.

In eastern Connecticut, the communities served include Bozrah, Gales Ferry, Griswold, Groton, Ledyard, Lisbon, Montville, New London, North Franklin, North Stonington, Norwich, Preston, Stonington, Voluntown and Waterford.

Instacart estimates the local market contains 77,000 households.

Unlike other delivery services, Instacart, which bills itself as an “on-demand” service, promises to fill orders in as little as an hour as opposed to “tomorrow or even later,” Carnes said. Instacart employees, known as “full-service shoppers,” gather the ordered items and drive

them to the customer’s door.

So far, a little more than 100 employees have been hired to fill and deliver orders in the Norwich area, Carnes said.

Customers tend to be young professionals, “moms” and families as well as the elderly and disabled, he said.

Orders can be placed at www.Instacart.com or via Instacart’s mobile app. For minimum orders of $35 or more, the delivery fee is $5.99.

Instacart Express memberships guaranteeing unlimited free same-day delivery on orders of $35 or more go for $14.99 a month or $149 a year.

“What we laugh about internally is that our biggest competitor is the grocery shopper (who insists on doing his or her own shopping),” Carnes said. “What we’re trying to do is change behavior.”

While Instacart has national agreements with Big Y, CVS and Petco, it seeks to expand and adapt its retailer mix from region to region. In the New Haven area, for example, Costco orders can be filled. In Stamford, Fairway stores participate, and Stew Leonard’s stores have been added in areas served by that grocery chain.

A fixture in many metropolitan areas, including New York, Boston and Los Angeles, Instacart added 115 secondand third-tier markets this year and now serves a total of 180 markets. It expanded into Toronto, its first international market, earlier this month.