Instacart Launches One-Hour Grocery Delivery Service in Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS, IN--(Marketwired - Aug 25, 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 has expanded to Indianapolis, its 17^th city. Beginning today, customers can order from Whole Foods Market, Costco (no membership needed), Marsh Supermarkets, Georgetown Market and Petco stores and have everything delivered by Instacart in as little as one hour.

"We decided to launch Instacart in Indianapolis after receiving tremendous demand from the community and extremely high interest from retail partners here," said Apoorva Mehta, founder and CEO of Instacart. "Our model of partnering with favorite local stores means we can replicate our success no matter the size of the market. We're excited to bring the first on-demand grocery delivery service to Indianapolis and look forward to delivering healthy, affordable groceries directly to your doorstep."

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."

"We know that our customers lead extremely busy lives, and we are thrilled to bring our Indianapolis customers a fast and extremely easy way to purchase fresh, high quality products from Whole Foods Market," said David Schwartz, Whole Food Market Midwest Regional Vice President of Operations. "Our partnership with Instacart enables our customers to easily buy groceries with no artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners and preservatives from their computer or smartphone and have them conveniently delivered to their door step."

Marsh Supermarkets expressed their excitement about partnering with Instacart for the first time. "Our mission is to create an exceptional shopping experience while supporting and improving the communities we serve," said Amit Bhardwaj, Senior Director Customer Loyalty at Marsh Supermarkets. "Instacart is the perfect partner to achieve that mission while also continuing to improve our offerings to customers with the addition of on-demand delivery."

Instacart's initial delivery area in Indianapolis covers Downtown Indianapolis, Broad Ripple, Meridian Kessler, Washington Township, Nora and Carmel. For a full map, visit: https://www.instacart.com/indianapolis.

Instacart has hired 70 shoppers to kick off its Indianapolis operations with more to come as the service grows in the area.

"I am really excited to be joining Instacart," said Angela Sanchez, Instacart shopper in Indianapolis. "The hours are flexible and are a perfect fit for my busy life. I can't wait to get started!"

As part of its launch in Indianapolis, Instacart will be making deliveries from the Shopper Chopper, a giant motorized street-legal shopping cart.

How Instacart works: Customers go online to www.Instacart.com or open the Instacart mobile app, select their city/store, add items to a virtual cart, and then choose a delivery window (within one hour, within two hours, or some scheduled time in the future) and check out. An Instacart Personal Shopper accepts the order on his/her smartphone, uses the Instacart Shopper app to guide them through shopping, and then delivers the order to the customer in the designated delivery timeframe.

New customers can open an account at www.Instacart.com, and get free delivery on their first order of $10 or more. The vast majority of Instacart customers select two-hour delivery for a charge of just $3.99. One-hour delivery is also available, for $5.99. The minimum order size is just $10. 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. For other FAQs, visit https://www.instacart.com/faq.

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 17 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 (Marsh Supermarkets, Georgetown Market, 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.