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Instacart Expands To Chicago

techcrunch.com

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Re: Instacart Expands To Chicago

#3

Post by kirinan »

I really hope they expand to Seattle. I know Amazon Fresh exists and that Safeway does delivery here, but they don't do same day delivery and its a lot more expensive than instacart. Some competition will do this area some good. If they can keep quality up and keep prices down, I know they can dominate this whole market.

Re: Instacart Expands To Chicago

#4

Post by adamnemecek »

kirinan wrote: post #3

I really hope they expand to Seattle. I know Amazon Fresh exists and that Safeway does delivery here, but they don't do same day delivery and its a lot more expensive than instacart. Some competition will do this area some good. If they can keep quality up and keep prices down, I know they can dominate this whole market.

I agree. I've also found that neither carries a lot of the brands and products that I want. Or alternatively, they are out of stock.

Re: Instacart Expands To Chicago

#5

Post by loganfrederick »

My roommate just signed up for Peapod and got our first delivery last week. I am looking forward to trying out Instacart and comparing the experience. It seems like I've been seeing an increasing number of Peapod trucks around the city the past six months (maybe it's just me), so I agree with the article's suggestion that there is demand for the service in Chicago.

Edit: In case the team is reading, I'm also curious: Does Instacart have anyone (like an Operations Manager) in Chicago, or are all the logistics being handled remotely from SF?

Re: Instacart Expands To Chicago

#9

Post by rayiner »

jamieomatthews wrote: post #2

Chicago though?

"Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta told AllThingsD that his company built a 'feasibility matrix' to determine which city it would expand to. Components of the matrix included what you might guess: car-ownership density and income. Weather was reportedly also a factor. Mehta tells TechCrunch that '33 percent of the year, Chicago has some form of precipitation' and that his company has learned in the San Francisco area that 'people just do not like grocery shopping when it’s raining.' Seattle, you might be next."

I think Chicago is a natural fit. The specific neighborhoods they picked have about 600k people in 33 square miles (a bit denser overall than San Francisco as a whole). There are a ton of residential skyscrapers in those neighborhoods, which means they probably can hit several orders in one go. 30% of Chicago households don't have a car, about the same as San Francisco. It rains or is cold about half the year, and is hot and humid a couple of months out of the remainder, which makes people not want to carry groceries home.

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