Instacart announced today that it is rolling out 30-minute grocery delivery in 15 of its markets across the U.S. through a number of its retail partners. The launch is part of a new “Priority Delivery” service that will also include 45 and 60 minute delivery for more customers in more cities nationwide. The move towards faster delivery comes amid mounting pressure from a new crop of startups promising delivery of groceries in as little as ten minutes.
According to the press announcement, Instacart’s 30-minute delivery will be available in 15 of the largest cities in the U.S. including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. The new service will be available at more than 300 store locations from retailers including Ralphs, Safeway, Sprouts Farmers Market and Stater Bros. This half hour delivery will expand to more cities and retailers in the coming months. The company didn’t say how much more Priority Delivery will cost, but Grocery Dive reports the company expects to “add a small, incremental fee for the service that will be dynamic and vary according to market conditions.”
For grocery delivery, two-hour delivery is fast becoming too long to wait. New services from the likes of Gopuff, which raised $1.5 billion earlier this year, promise an average delivery time of 30 minutes, 24 hours a day. Additionally, there is a raft of new smaller, delivery-only grocery stores like Fridge No More and Gorillas opening up deeper inside residential neighborhoods that promise on-demand delivery in 10 to 15 minutes. Right now, Fridge No More and Gorillas are only available in select New York City neighborhoods, but Fridge No More doesn’t require a minimum order and does not charge a delivery fee, and Gorillas has no minimum order and flat $1.80 delivery fee.
If these new groceries-as-a-utlity services catch on, it’s not hard to imagine them quickly spreading to other densely populated urban areas. Operationally speaking, they don’t cost a tremendous amount to operate. The stores can be small, don’t have to be pretty (because they aren’t open to the public), and because they are in specific neighborhoods, they can customize inventory to match that area’s demand.
In internet time, Instacart is already an elder statesman in the grocery delivery game. Now we’ll see if it’s move towards faster delivery can help it stave off the rising competition.
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