Staff photo by Mike Pare / Food City is expanding its GoCart curbside pickup program to more area stores.Food City has boosted the number of stores in the Chattanooga area offering curbside grocery pickup as the consumer comfort level grows with online supermarket shopping.
“They can order and pick up their order in three hours,” said Kevin Stafford, the company’s vice president of marketing, noting that six Food City stores in the area will be part of its GoCart program by the end of next week.
Lorrie Griffith, editor of industry magazine The Shelby Report, said grocers recognize shoppers are strapped for time, and technology is making it easier for stores to offer the service.
She said that online apps can even keep a running grocery list for shoppers of items they typically buy.
“It makes it so much easier,” Griffith said.
Danielle Chang, who was picking up groceries from the Walmart on Signal Mountain Road on Wednesday, said she has three children, including a 5-month-old baby.
ONLINE SHOPPING
About 5 percent of U.S. consumers preferred shopping for groceries online in 2016, according to the website Statista. The $7 billion in online grocery sales rung up in 2015 is expected to rise to $18 billion by 2020.
“I like the convenience,” she said. “It’s a lot quicker. I can spend more time with my kids.”
Walmart employee Chantel Simmons, who was loading up Chang’s vehicle, said the curbside service is growing. She said the store was expected to see about 50 curbside customers on Wednesday. On Monday, the store saw 87 such customers, Simmons said.
Walmart started grocery pickup with two stores in the area and has expanded it since then.
While Publix locally doesn’t yet offer curbside pickup, the Lakeland, Fla., company is testing it at a couple of stores near Tampa. Publix stores in the Atlanta area are to get curbside pickup by the end of the year, according to the company.
Maria Brous, director of media and community relations, said in a statement that company officials are “excited to test Publix Curbside and learn more about how to best meet the evolving needs of our customers.”
Griffith said the timing seems right for the service as consumers become increasingly busy and make choices on how to spend their time.
She said it seems especially helpful for shoppers “who have children and don’t want to drag children into the store.”
In addition to curbside pickup, home grocery delivery is another online option Chattanoogans are seeing.
Shipt, a Birmingham, Ala.-based grocery delivery firm, began offering grocery delivery from Publix supermarkets for a monthly or per-service fee last year. Instacart, a San Francisco-based company that operates in more than 100 markets, began a similar fee-based home delivery service in July for purchases from Publix, Whole Foods, Costco and Petco and Instacart added Food City delivery service in September.
Food City this week added its renovated East Brainerd store to the number in the area with GoCart service. Next week, the grocer’s Athens, Tenn., store will offer GoCart.
Steven C. Smith, Food City’s chief executive, said the company’s GoCart program is “literally changing grocery shopping as we know it.”
“At Food City, we’re always looking for ways to bring added value and convenience to our shoppers,” he said.
Stafford said people who use the service, which it started offering in the area more than two years ago, like the connection they’ve made with the “professional shoppers.” They learn the preferences of the consumers they’re buying for, such as whether customers like their bananas ripe or not, he said.
As to which stores offer GoCart, Stafford said it’s all about location.
“We feel like the locations we’ve picked so far makes it very convenient. We love how customers have responded to this,” he said.
Food City charges a service fee of $4.99 regardless of order size. Customers can pay online or by credit or debit card at the time of pickup.
At Walmart, which started curbside service about 18 months ago, there’s a $30 minimum purchase for grocery orders while pickup is free.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.