London and Windsor residents who view getting groceries as a pesky errand will now be able to skip the trip to the store and have them delivered right to their door.
Loblaws has teamed up with U.S.-based Instacart to begin offering home grocery delivery in the two cities beginning Thursday.
Those interested in the service would just have to download the app, available at Instacart.ca, select their desired items from Loblaws or Real Canadian Superstore locations and pay by credit card.
"Once you've paid that is it, you'll get your order delivered by one of our shoppers," said Quentin Servais Laval, Instacart’s Canadian operations manager.
Deliveries can be made as quickly as two hours after placing an order. The service comes with a $3.99 delivery fee on orders over $35 or customers can pay an annual flat rate of $99. In addition to the delivery fee, there is a service charge used to guarantee wages for Instacart employees.
The same-day grocery delivery service has hired 100 people to handle the shopping in each of the two southwestern Ontario cities, with the possibility more could be added depending on the popularity of the service.
Instacart first partnered with Loblaws last December in the Toronto-area. Laval said the decision to expand came after careful consideration.
"We look at the number of households in the region and the type of population," said Laval. "In London, we see a very good market for Instacart because it is a very good mix of families who are pushed for time, seniors who don't have the ability to go to the store, and a very big population of students who are very tech-savvy, use to using apps and may not have a car to go grocery shopping."
The grocery delivery service will also launch in Kingston, Barrie, and Vancouver on Thursday. In March it will come to Calgary and Edmonton.