Beginning on April 27, residents at 1.6 million households in the metro Detroit area will have access to grocery delivery services through Instacart, a San Francisco-based company that partners with local grocery stores to deliver food and home goods to members doors.
When Instacart is available, residents in Detroit, Dearborn, Warren, Allen Park, Taylor, Woodhaven, Flat Rock, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Canton, Westland, Plymouth, Livonia, Northville, Grosse Pointe, St. Clair, Royal Oak, Macomb, Rochester Hills, Troy, Farmington Hills, South Lyon, Pinckney, and Brighton will be able to have groceries from Meijer, Kroger, Whole Foods, Plum Market, and Costco (no membership required) shipped to their homes. Midwest general manager Dave Osborne says Instacart plans to expand to the rest of Michigan in the future.
“We’ve seen a lot of demand, so people have been coming to the Instacart site and putting in their metro Detroit zip codes, and up until now they’ve just been getting a message that says, ‘Oh, sorry, we don’t deliver there yet,’ and we’ve gotten tons of requests leading up to our launch next week,” he adds.
Osborne adds that Instacart is beneficial for those looking to make grocery shopping more convenient.
“Time is something that’s so valuable to people now, so if they can save some time in their day by not making a trip to the grocery store and waiting in checkout lines, they’re very interested in Instacart,” he says. “For other people like parents, it can be a little painful to go to the grocery store with kids in tow, it can be pretty stressful. Instacart is also really valuable for people that have a hard time getting around, like elderly or disabled people.”
Instacart’s Express membership program will offer same-day one-hour delivery with a free trial period for an entire year. After the first year, membership is $99 per year, or $14.99 per month.
The service is expected to bring more than 200 jobs to Michigan. More information about Instacart can be found here.
