An internet-based grocery delivery service is expanding to the Quad Cities. Instacart officially opens for business here Wednesday, allowing people to order online, and have groceries delivered to their home.
Operations Manager Martha Vargas says Instacart customers order from the website or use a downloaded app. Initially they can only order from Schnucks, Natural Grocers, and Petco.
"If they want an apple, they would just pick an apple and then search for the 15 to 20 different apples that would appear at Schnucks or Natural Grocers. Then they would select how many apples they would like, add it to the cart, then they would go to checkout like you would in a store."
The order will be filled by a "shopper" - a local resident who's signed up to process and deliver orders for Instacart. So far about 100 shoppers are available in the Quad Cities.
The company was founded in San Francisco six years ago, and has been available in the Midwest for four years, including Chicago, Champaign, Peoria, and St. Louis.
Customers can pay $5.99 per delivery or pay one price for an annual membership.
