Instacart has begun same-day online grocery delivery at most Hannaford supermarkets in New England, making it an e-commerce provider for all Ahold Delhaize USA grocery chains.
The San Francisco-based online grocery giant said Thursday that about 150 of Hannaford’s 184 stores in Maine, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont now offer the service, which delivers fresh food, dry groceries, household essentials and other items to customers’ doorsteps in as soon as an hour.
“We’re excited to rapidly expand same-day delivery service through our partnership with the Instacart Marketplace,” Maile Buker, vice president of marketing at Scarborough, Maine-based Hannaford, said in a statement. “This complements our extremely popular Hannaford To Go pickup and delivery services and addresses growing customer demand for convenient shopping solutions. Our customers now have more options to get Hannaford’s fresh, high-quality products that they’ve come to expect and depend on at our stores.”
Hannaford customers can shop online via Instacart at Instacart.com or through the Instacart app on their mobile device. They enter their ZIP code to select their local Hannaford store and then begin adding items to their virtual cart. Instacart personal shoppers pick, pack and deliver orders within the customers’ designated time frame, which can be on the same day or scheduled up to two weeks in advance. All orders default to “Leave at My Door Delivery” to promote social distancing.
Instacart delivery complements the Hannaford chain's popular Hannaford To Go pickup and delivery service. (Photo courtesy of Hannaford)
“As people across North America continue to turn to online grocery shopping as a safe and convenient way to get the groceries and essentials they need, we know they want to be able to get those goods from their favorite local retailer. We’re proud to partner with Hannaford and make it easier for their customers to get the items they need delivered from the store to their door in as fast as an hour,” stated Andrew Nodes, vice president of retail at Instacart.
“Grocery delivery has quickly become an essential part of people’s day to day lives," Nodes added, "and we’re committed to ensuring our retail partners have an online solution that supports the needs of their customers who have trusted them for generations.”
Since the start of June, Instacart has launched or expanded delivery and pickup service at over 750 stores of four of Ahold Delhaize’s five U.S. supermarket brands, including Giant Food, Stop & Shop, Food Lion and now Hannaford. The Giant Company, which operates supermarkets under the Giant and Martin’s banners, also offers on-demand service via Instacart.
Most recently, in mid-July, Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion launched Instacart same-day delivery at 302 additional stores, including via the Food Lion To-Go program and Instacart marketplace and app, in Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. With the expansion, more than 500 Food Lion stores now provide Instacart delivery.
The Food Lion To-Go website and mobile app were developed and are powered by Instacart Enterprise. Though Instacart manages Food Lion’s online shopping portal and delivery service, the supermarket chain uses its own trained personal shoppers to pick and bag groceries for Food Lion To-Go pickup orders and bring them to customers when they arrive at the store. In late July, Food Lion added Food Lion To-Go pickup sites at another 38 stores in North Carolina and Virginia.
At the start of July, Quincy, Mass.-based Stop & Shop expanded Instacart same-day delivery to 321 stores, making the service available at more than 75% of its stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. Stop & Shop also announced at the time that it plans to open three new e-commerce “warerooms” and at least 50 more pickup locations this year to support rising online grocery demand in its Northeast customer base.
Overall, Instacart partners with more than 400 national, regional and local retailers and provides delivery and/or pickup service from over 30,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in the United States and Canada. The company said its delivery service is accessible to more than 85% of U.S. households and over 70% of Canadian households.
In other news, Instacart yesterday announced a partnership with telehealth provider Doctor On Demand to offer personal shoppers free access to COVID-19 screenings and virtual medical consultations. Instacart said the Doctor on Demand partnership marks the national rollout of a successful pilot in Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., earlier this summer and will run until the end of the year.
Also to foster coronavirus safety, Instacart said it has called on all of its personal shoppers to wear face masks in stores and when they come in contact with customers. Starting next week, personal shoppers and customers will see new in-app messages with simple safety steps and reminders to wear face coverings. Any active shopper who needs a face mask can order a free health and safety kit from Instacart, the company added.
