Chicago's Plum Market Joins Instacart
Instacart is now an official delivery service for Plum Market, a grocer in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood known for its natural, organic, local and specialty items, as well as its competitive selection, service and wine prices.
This marks the sixth Chicago store offering for Instacart, which purports to be the only service that can deliver groceries from multiple local stores within an hour. Instacart’s prices will be the same as Plum Market’s in-store prices.
“Our new partnership with Instacart enables us to offer Plum Market shoppers a convenient and cost-effective home delivery option,” said Matt Jonna, president and co-founder of Plum Market. “It will also help us widen our reach throughout the city, to grow our customer base.”
Instacart Expansion
Instacart Chicago City Manager Scott Holloway said that his team approached Plum Market after numerous requests from Chicago customers. “Plum Market is recognized locally as a great option for natural and organic foods, and we had many requests from existing Instacart customers to add them as a delivery option,” said Holloway. “Matt and his team were very receptive to the idea, and we’re excited to kick off this service.”
Launched in San Francisco, Instacart expanded to Chicago in September and in addition to continually adding stores has expanded its local delivery area several times since. Instacart has disrupted the traditional grocery delivery space with its crowd-sourced labor force, dubbed "personal shoppers," who shop for and deliver grocery orders using their own transportation in as little as one hour. This eliminates the need for costly infrastructure such as inventory, warehouses, trucks and full-time drivers.
Customers can open an account online and get free delivery on their first order of $35 or more. Instacart also offers a service called Instacart Express, a $99 annual membership that eliminates delivery fees for all orders of $35 or more.
Based in Farmington Hills, Mich., privately owned Plum Market also has full-service grocery stores in Bloomfield Township, Ann Arbor and West Bloomfield, Mich.
Instacart customers in San Francisco, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C., can choose from more than 350,000 items from local grocery stores and large chains like Safeway, Whole Foods Market, Shaw’s, BJ’s Wholesale and Costco.