While most of us are privy to meal services like HelloFresh and Chef’s Plate, Loblaws is about to change the game with their own home delivery service. The Queens Quay location, right here in Toronto just launched Instacart, a service that will ship anything on your shopping list directly to your front door.
Yup, that means you can purchase all your favourite President’s Choice products without even stepping foot in a brick & mortar location, AND there are no set recipes like in many of the popular meal services currently available. Partnering with Instacart one year ago, Loblaws will be the first major grocery retailer in Canada to offer a service of this kind; even conglomerate Walmart will be playing catch up as they currently only offer pickup options.
In an article by Grocery Business, an Instacart representative stated that this is the first Loblaws branded store to acquire the service. The only other Canadian store that launched the service earlier this October is Loblaw banner Real Canadian Superstore in Winnipeg. However, with over 2,500 locations Canada-wide, these initial two locations are only the beginning.
In the same Grocery Business article, it states that Loblaws plans to roll out Instacart to more Loblaws, Real Canadian Superstores, and T&T locations, all of which will function through the Instacart website or app. Essentially customers visit either platform, pick from a local store’s online inventory (as many as 30,000 products), add their selections to a virtual shopping cart, and then choose a delivery window (one hour or up to five days later).
On the flip side, an Instacart shopper will receive and accept the order on their smartphone – similar to how Uber works – use the app the guide them through the shopping list, and then finally deliver the order within the selected time window. Instacart states that orders of $35 or more have a delivery fee of $3.99 or alternatively, an Instacart Express membership for $9.99 a month or $99 a year, enables free same-day delivery on orders $35 or more.