Instacart and Strack & Van Til Launches Curbside Pickup Pilot in Northwest Indiana

Instacart-LogoStrack & Van Til announced today that they will be partnering with Instacart (www.Instacart.com), the fast-growing retail delivery service. Strack & Van Til who has been testing pick-up options, today announced a pilot for curbside grocery pickup in their Schererville, IN store located at 1515 U.S. 41. The option would give shoppers the region’s first look at grocery “click and collect”. Beginning today, customers in Northwest Indiana can order trusted national brands and local meat and produce from Strack & Van Til, have them picked, packed, and checked out by a Strack & Van Til employee, and have them loaded into their cars curbside.

“We’re very excited about piloting a pickup option for our customers,” said Jeff Strack, CEO at Strack & Van Til. “Our initial launch with Instacart for Delivery in the Chicago area has been incredibly successful in a few short weeks. Customers everywhere are looking for ways to make the shopping experience more convenient and we believe curbside pickup will be a great fit for the Schererville customer. We are excited to extend our partnership with Instacart and provide our shoppers with another option.”

“Grocery Pickup is a relatively new product extension for Instacart. Partnering with Strack & Van Til, an established grocer that has a loyal following, opens up a new market where we can leverage the Instacart technology platform to provide customers with time saving convenience in their weekly grocery shopping” said Dave Osborne, General Manager for the Midwest markets at Instacart. “We are excited to further our partnership with Strack & Van Til to provide affordable, quality produce and groceries for customers in NW Indiana.”

Strack & Van Til pickup will initially only be available at the Schererville location, though both parties are planning to expand coverage after the initial pilot.

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.”

How Instacart Pickup works: Customers go online to www.Instacart.com or open the Instacart mobile app on their iPhone or Android device, select their city/store, add items to a virtual cart, and then choose an available pickup window and check out. A Strack & Van Til Personal Shopper accepts the order on a smartphone, uses the Instacart Shopper app to guide them through shopping, and then packs and stages the order for the customer for the designated curbside pickup window.

New customers can open an account at www.Instacart.com. The first pickup is free and future orders cost just $1.99 for pickup of orders over $35. The minimum order size is just $10. Instacart also offers Instacart Express – an annual membership that eliminates pickup/delivery fees for all orders of $35 or more. The cost is just $149 per year. For other FAQs, visit https://www.instacart.com/faq.