Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, which has six stores in the Twin Cities, is the latest retailer to join forces with Instacart for delivery.
There are now at least a dozen retailers that Instacart delivers from across the region. Others include Cub, Total Wine, Costco, CVS, Petco, Whole Foods, Lakewinds Co-op, United Noodles, Wedge Co-op, Liquor Boy and Sur La Table. The options depend, though, on your zip code.
As Instacart adds more retailers to its platform, it's becoming an even fiercer competitor for Target, which recently launched its own delivery service via Instacart rival Shipt, a firm it acquired late last year. Shipt, which Target is expanding nationwide this year, delivers for retailers such as Kroger, Lidl, Publix, and H-E-B in certain markets as well as from Target. In the Twin Cities, where Shipt rolled out last month, Target is the only retailer from which it delivers at the moment.
But Target executives have said they hope to add more retailers to the Shipt platform to make it more attractive for consumers to purchase an annual membership, which currently stands at $99 a year, and to make the service more cost effective to operate.
Meanwhile, Instacart offers various payment options -- a $149 annual membership or $14.99 monthly membership for unlimited deliveries on orders over $35. Or consumers can choose to pay $5.99 for an individual delivery.
In addition to the Twin Cities, Fresh Thyme Farmers Market added delivery through Instacart last week to most of its Midwestern markets including Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and St. Louis. Fresh Thyme also offers delivery through Amazon Prime Now in three of its stores (but none of which are in the Twin Cities).
"The demand for delivery services has never been greater," Chris Sherrell, CEO of Fresh Thyme, said in a statement.
The delivery space is heating up. Amazon has begun delivering from select Whole Foods locations after acquiring the company last year.
And Walmart announced last month that it will be expanding its same-day grocery delivery service, in partnership with third-party delivery parties such as Uber, to more than 100 metro areas by the end of this year.
