Instacart Expands to Chicago's Hyde Park

In keeping with its fast-paced expansion, grocery delivery service Instacart has added Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood to its service area, and now delivers from Tony's Fresh Market.

In addition to Tony's, Instacart also delivers from Plum Market, Costco, Jewel-Osco, Mariano’s, Open Produce, Stanley’s and Whole Foods Market in Chicago. The company said Hyde Park residents will be able to order from Jewel-Osco and Open Produce initially, and more retailers will be added in the future.

"We're expanding Instacart's platform in multiple ways. We are broadening our geographic reach which allows retailers to continue to reach new customers and provide delivery from multiple store locations," Scott Holloway, city manager for Instacart Chicago, told Progressive Grocer. "We are also increasing the depth of our offerings on Instacart to continue to provide our customers with a fantastic and extensive shopping experience."

Steven Lucy, owner of Chicago-based Open Produce, noted the addition of Instacart helps manage the "logistics and staffing necessary to provide short-notice deliveries," and also enables "customers to continue to shop at independent neighborhood stores like ours that they’ve come to know and love, with the added convenience of delivery.”

Instacart is offering customers free delivery on their first order of $10 or more when they open an account at www.instacart.com. The company also operates Instacart Express – a service similar to Amazon Prime -- which requires a $99 annual membership and eliminates delivery fees of $35 or more.

Instacart operates in San Francisco, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, D.C.