Instacart, a same-day grocery delivery service that launched in the District just last week, will offer items from Whole Foods beginning today. According to Matt O'Connor, city launcher with Instacart, the service rolled out with Harris Teeter, adds Whole Foods today and will add Costco by the beginning of March.
Unlike other grocery delivery services such as Relay Foods or PeaPod, which often require at least 24 hours to fulfill grocery delivery orders placed online, Instacart offers same-day delivery of a shopper's online order via a staff of personal shoppers. For busy D.C.—and now Arlington—residents, or for people who simply don't like to grocery shop, $3.99 seems a small premium to pay for a same-day order of $35 or more. If your order is under $35, or you want to choose a one-hour window later in the day, you'll pay $7.99. If you need your groceries within the hour, the delivery charge goes up to $14.99.
D.C. is one of five markets Instacart is serving. The Y-Combinator startup launched in 2012 (read Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta's story of
hacking the famed accelerator), and successfully rolled its services out in San Francisco, Boston and Chicago. Instacart is also launching today in Philadelphia. O'Connor says that expansion within the D.C. market is coming soon. "We wanted to start small and then expand," he explains, adding that Montgomery County should see Instacart service soon.
"It's been an amazing launch," O'Connor says. "There's been overwhelming demand. We don't have enough shoppers." Though the company won't release official numbers, O'Connor says Instacart plans to double the number of personal
shoppers it employs by month's end.
O'Connor says that last week's weather certainly didn't hurt Instacart's D.C. launch. "It was a shot in the arm," he says. "The worse the weather is, the better business is for us. We definitely bailed a few people out last Friday, with flowers and chocolate for their honey."
Elevation DC readers can use the code "
ElevationDC" on Instacart for a $10 credit and free delivery on orders over $35.