SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Aug 17, 2015) - Instacart (www.Instacart.com), the fast-growing grocery delivery service whose personal shoppers hand pick and deliver items from trusted local stores, announced today that it is inviting its contractor in-store shoppers in the New York City metro area to apply for newly created employee roles with expanded responsibilities.
The company currently has hundreds of in-store shoppers in the New York area. Based on its experience in other cities, Instacart expects about three-quarters of current in-store shoppers to apply for these new part-time employee positions.
Instacart began offering its contractors the option to apply for employee positions in Boston in February, and with today's announcement has expanded the program to all of the 16 cities it serves. It will also be the standard approach for in-store shoppers going forward in new Instacart cities. As a result of this new option, since June Instacart has hired more than 1,000 part-time workers across the country, contributing to Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance, and workers' compensation for these employees.
As employees, Instacart shoppers will be provided with training and supervision, which has been proven to improve the efficiency and quality of order picking, leading to higher customer satisfaction. Those who choose to remain contractors can move into driver or combined driver/shopper roles.
Instacart offers part-time employees competitive wages that exceed the local minimum wage in each of its markets.
"This has been a great change for Instacart," said Apoorva Mehta, the company's founder and CEO. "By making in-store shoppers employees, we've been able to train them and have more control over operations. This in turn has helped improve efficiency and order accuracy, and improved our customer satisfaction rates. We are getting great feedback from shoppers as well -- those that are now employees report a new feeling of connectedness to Instacart, and those who chose to remain contractors were glad to still have that option."
Originally launched in San Francisco, and since expanded into many other cities, Instacart has fundamentally changed the traditional grocery delivery space by connecting customers with personal shoppers who shop for and deliver grocery orders in as little as one hour. This eliminates the need for costly infrastructure such as inventory, warehouses and trucks. In January 2015, Forbes named Instacart "America's Most Promising Company."
New customers can open an account at www.Instacart.com, and get free delivery on their first order of $10 or more. Instacart also offers Instacart Express -- an annual membership that eliminates delivery fees for all orders of $35 or more. The cost is just $99 per year.
About Instacart
Instacart allows people to order groceries online by connecting them with personal shoppers who hand pick items at customers' local, favorite stores and deliver straight to their doors. Founded in San Francisco in 2012, Instacart has quickly scaled to 16 cities across the US and partnered with dozens of grocery retailers, including popular national chains (Whole Foods Market, Costco, Petco) as well as local, regional grocers (Zabar's, Bi-Rite, Plum Market). By combining a personal touch with cutting-edge technology, Instacart offers customers a simple solution to save time and eat fresh food from the grocery brands they trust. Instacart is the only grocery service that can meet today's on-demand lifestyle by delivering in as little as one hour. First delivery is free at www.Instacart.com.
Contact Information:
For information, contact:
Michelle G. Faulkner
Big Swing Communications
+1 617-510-6998