Quick delivery: A new option for groceries comes to Austin

Instacart announces plans to make Austin 10th city to have service.

Austinites are getting another option for grocery delivery. San Francisco-based Instacart, which promises one-hour delivery of everyday grocery items, said Wednesday that it is expanding service to Austin, the company’s 10th city.

Unlike competitors Greenling and Farmhouse Delivery, Instacart relies on “personal shoppers,” who use their own transportation to get from the store to wherever they are delivering. Burpy, another grocery delivery service in Austin, San Antonio and Houston, uses a similar model but promises delivery in three hours instead of one.

“Austin is the fastest-growing city in the U.S., with a young, tech-savvy culture and a major university downtown,” Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta said in a written statement. “Those are all factors that we look for in an expansion city. We think Austinites will really appreciate the convenience factor of Instacart, and we’re working hard to establish relationships not just with the big chains, but also the local merchants such as Royal Blue Grocery who add so much to the local Austin community.”

California startup Favor moved its headquarters to

Austin last year to offer a similar one-hour delivery of food from local restaurants, food trucks and grocery stores, but it doesn’t focus on grocery goods, as does Instacart. With same-day delivery, Amazon Fresh leads the grocery delivery market in cities like as Los Angeles and Seattle, but the company has not said if it plans to expand the service to Texas.

Initially, Instacart users will be able to buy just about anything from Royal Blue Grocery and H-E-B through Instacart. com or the company’s mobile app, but more local stores will be added to the list in coming weeks, the company said.

Customers can have the groceries delivered to almost any address in Austin, from Loop 360 to U.S. 183 and Parm- er Lane to RM 1626, for a flat delivery fee of $3.99 for two-hour delivery or $14.99 for one-hour. The minimum order is $10, and the prices of goods, excluding alcohol, are higher than what the stores charge.

You can also buy an Instacart Express membership for $99 that eliminates delivery fees for any order over $35.

Based in San Francisco, Instacart also offers service in Boston, Chica-

Minimum order is $10, and prices are higher than in stores.

go, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C.