Food City is launching a same-day delivery service in Chattanooga through Instacart.
The Abingdon, Va.,-based grocery chain announced Thursday that it has begun grocery delivery from its Chattanooga area stores through its website, foodcitydelivers.com and the Instacart App.
Orders will be delivered to 160,000 Chattanoogans, often in as little as an hour.
"Food City is committed to providing our loyal customers with the best products and services possible," said Food City President Steven C. Smith, who began a similar service earlier this summer in Knoxville. "Our Food City GoCart curbside pick-up continues to be very popular and we're excited to have the opportunity to work with a great partner like Instacart to expand our e-commerce options to include the added convenience of home delivery."
Instacart, a San Francisco-based company that's in more than 100 U.S. markets, began delivery service in the Chattanooga market in July with delivery from Publix, Whole Foods Market, Costco and Petco.
Instacart spokesman Dacyl Armendariz said adding Food City to its merchant delivery list is right in line with our goal to partner with the best retailers across the nation to provide customers the convenience of same-day delivery from the stores they trust in their own community. "
"We are thrilled to be partnering with Food City." he said.
Delivery via Instacart is $5.99 on orders of $35 or more. Many customers also take the opportunity to save big over time by signing up for Instacart Express membership, which enables unlimited, free same-day delivery on orders of $35 or more. After a free trial period, Instacart Express membership is $14.99 a month or $149 a year.
To celebrate the new partnership, Instacart is offering Food City shoppers $20 off their first order of $35 or more - plus a free first time delivery - when they enter the code CHATT20 at checkout until Nov. 6.
Delivery hours for the new Food City deliveries will be 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.
New customers can go to www.Instacart.com to open an account. During the on-line checkout process, customers will be prompted to enter their Food City ValuCard number to take advantage of added savings and ValuPoints, and choose a delivery window ranging from within one or two hours, up to seven days in advance. Their personal Instacart shoppers will do the rest.
"Instacart's expansion across the Heartland of America, to meet the goal of serving 80 percent of American households by 2018, is driven by partnerships with the nation's best retailers like Food City," said Andrew Nodes, Instacart's vice president of retail accounts. "There is a clear demand for high quality grocery delivery, Food City and Instacart are partnering to meet that demand in Chattanooga."
In addition to Instacart, Shipt, a Birmingham, Ala.-based grocery delivery startup that delivers groceries from Publix stores here, and Google Express, which lets people order from the Costco Wholesale store, also offer home delivery of grocery items in Chattanooga.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6340.