Instacart grocery delivery service launching in Dover-Smyrna-Middletown area

A San Francisco retail delivery service will start bringing groceries to homes in the Dover-Smyrna-Middletown area Thursday.

Instacart, which debuted in Delaware in October 2017 with a Wilmington launch, is expanding into the Central Delaware area where there are 69,000 households to service.

The nationwide grocery delivery service launched in Millsboro on April 19, 2018, and company officials said the overwhelming volume of requests there made expansion into the Dover-Smyrna-Middletown region a natural next step.

"We've been growing since we launched in Delaware last year," said Instacart operations manager George Shotz. "We're heading into a big growth period in August and September because of back-to-school shopping, so we thought the timing was right."

Service areas include: Dover, Smyrna, Blackiston, Kenton, Cheswold, Little Creek, Leipsic, Pearsons Corner, Hartly, Willow Grove, Woodside East, Magnolia, Viola, Riverview, Little Heaven, Kitts Hummock, Camden, Rodney Village, Blackbird, Townsend, Middletown, Biddles Corner, Mt. Pleasant and Summit Bridge.

Founded in 2012, Instacart is now in more than 275 markets and partners with retailers across the United States.

Residents in the Central Delaware region will be able to order from Safeway, ACME Markets, CVS Pharmacy and Petco, and have groceries and everyday essentials delivered straight to their doorsteps in as little as one hour, according to an Instacart release.  

Dover-area residents will have to shop the Smyrna ACME because the Dover location was closed in June.

Shotz said the service is perfect for people with busy lifestyles. 

"This is the wave of the future," he said. "People want to get their time back and want to be able to eat healthier and this affords them that."

How Instacart works

According to Instacart, customers go online to www.Instacart.com 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, within 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.

For orders of $35 or more, the delivery fee is $5.99. According to Shotz, many customers take the opportunity to save big over time by signing up for an Instacart Express membership, which enables unlimited, free same-day delivery on orders of $35 or more. After a free trial period, Instacart Express membership is just $14.99 a month or $149 a year.

First-time users can also enter the code HIDOVER (10/25 expiration) at checkout to get $20 off an order of $35 or more, plus a free first time delivery.

New customers can open an account at www.Instacart.com. For other FAQs, visit www.instacart.com/faq.

Shotz said Instacart is also bringing income earning opportunities to the area with plans to bring aboard more than 100 new shoppers.

"We've been recruiting ever since the decision to launch in the area was made," he said. "The last two years, we've seen a very big expansion and now we are even in Canada. We want to grow and be in every state."

A growing trend

According to Statista, an online statistics, market research and business portal, the vast majority of grocery shopping still takes place in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. But according to industry experts, this pattern has begun to change and will continue to do so during the next decades.

More and more tech-savvy retailers now offer grocery delivery options for their customers in the United States, bringing food items right to your doorstep.

As of 2017, about 31 percent of U.S. consumers were likely to buy groceries online. In total, U.S. online grocery sales amounted to about $14.2 billion in 2017 and are expected to rise to nearly $30 billion by 2021. 

According to Statista, millennials were the biggest users of online shopping and retail delivery services in 2017.

Shotz said he has been with Instacart for four years and has not been to an actual store in a long time.

"Time is valuable and we can give people their time back," he said. 

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Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.