COMSUMER WATCH (CBS) – Tech companies want to save you the hassle of making a trip to the grocery store. It’s a part of a new wave of delivery services that’s promising to give consumers instant gratification.
Shae Iglin does it all. She’s one of 4,000 personal shoppers for Instacart, a mobile app that lets users grocery shop from their smartphones.
It works a lot like UBER. Punch-in a zip code, select your items then pick a delivery time.
“It’s a massive convenience, and we’re having a baby this Spring, and I imagine we’ll be using it even more,” said Iglin.
Instacart is going head-to-head with same day delivery services from tech giants like Amazon and Google.
Instacart is not affiliated with one grocery store brand, so customers can get more variety. Sales skyrocketed from a million dollars in 2012 to 100 million in 2014. Industry analysts say UBER’s success has sparked the growth of on demand mobile services. And like UBER, Instacart shoppers are independent contractors.
The first delivery is free and between $3.99 and $5.99 after that. Instacart is available in 15 cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Atlanta.
Google Express is available in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Amazon Fresh is available in Seattle, Southern and Northern California and New York.
