Instacart launches one-hour grocery delivery service in Columbia

San Francisco-based retail delivery service Instacart will launch in Columbia this week with plans to serve over 222,000 households.

Starting Thursday, Columbia-area residents will be able to order from retailers such as Whole Foods Market, Publix, Costco and Petco and have their groceries delivered straight to their doorsteps in as little as one hour. The company’s delivery coverage area includes Columbia, Forest Acres, West Columbia, Lexington, Irmo, Chapin, Elgin and Blythewood.

Instacart is also bringing new jobs to the area with plans to bring on more than 100 new shoppers.

“Over the past year we’ve seen incredible demand in the Columbia area,” said Nick Friedrich, Instacart general manager. “We work with a variety of local retailers to provide the freshest, highest-quality groceries to our customers. Expansion into Columbia gives us an opportunity to expand service in the South Carolina market. We’re also excited to build a world-class shopper community, where we can offer fun and flexible jobs for our shoppers, who ultimately deliver this service to the community.”

Instacart works when 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, then choose a delivery window (within one hour, within two hours, or up to seven days in advance) and check out. An Instacart shopper accepts the order on his/her smartphone, uses the Instacart shopper app to guide them through shopping, and then delivers the order to the customer in the designated delivery timeframe.

New customers can open an account at www.Instacart.com. For other FAQs, visit https://www.instacart.com/faq.

This story was originally published May 15, 2017 at 2:23 PM.