Instacart is a same-day grocery delivery service that has gained a lot of traction in cities like Toronto.
Recently, Instacart has announced that their Canadian headquarters will be located right here in Liberty Village. Having recently secured a lease on a 32,000 sq. ft. facility, Instacart’s Liberty Village offices will be under the banner of ‘Instacart North’. Once established, the company is expected to bring in more than 200 new jobs to the neighbourhood in the next few years.
For those that have never encountered the brand before, Instacart is an American-based company that expanded into Canada in late 2017. It is currently available in six Canadian provinces and has experienced a significant boom since building partnerships with Loblaws, Walmart Canada, and most recently, Pusateri’s. These partnerships have, in large part, come together in the last six months which has helped elevate Instacart perhaps beyond its nearest competitors which are Grocery Gateway and Instabuggy.
The addition of Instacart to Liberty Village is going to add another boost to the neighbourhood’s dominance as a Toronto tech hub. Since launching in Canada, Instacart has already sold millions of dollars’ worth of groceries online, employed a base of more than 2,000 personal shoppers in fifty markets across Canada, and they continue to exceed internal expectations.
Instacart continues to promote itself as a ‘Google map for a grocery store’, where you ensure a human being looks at every item you’re ordering and verifies that it’s good to go. This is particularly valuable when it comes to selecting things like produce or bread – something which has been an obstacle for similar grocery delivery service apps in Toronto and abroad.
Service quality has also been key to keeping Instacart at the top of grocery delivery apps in Liberty Village. To this point, personal shoppers hired by Instacart are given training in ‘grocery fundamentals’ among other things. Shoppers are assigned ratings by customers, similar to Uber. Those with the highest marks put themselves in line for financial bonuses. Any time you order through Instacart Toronto, you’re shopping the same local grocery stores you’d want to shop at if you were attending yourself.
Although no move-in date’s been set yet for Instacart’s arrival in Liberty Village, we look forward to welcoming them later in 2019. In the meantime, if you’re interested in using Instacart, all you have to do is download the app and put in your order. You can have groceries delivered to your residence in as little as an hour!
