Canada's online grocery delivery services are trying to keep up with historic demand
Canada's grocery delivery services have seen more traffic lately than the Trans-Canada highway on the August long weekend.
With most Canadians staying home and practicing physical distancing, major online grocery services like Instacart, Inabuggy and Save-On-Foods are seeing unprecedented demand for delivery.
San Francisco-based Instacart revealed that they've seen "the highest customer demand in company history" over the past three weeks, with billions of dollars of groceries being sold across their platform.
In response, the company is hiring 30,000 Canadian shoppers over the next three months who will deliver groceries across 300 cities.
To better serve the growing consumer demand for grocery delivery, we’re expanding our shopper community. Over the next 3 months, Instacart plans to bring on an additional 300,000 full-service shoppers to act as household heroes for consumers nationwide. https://t.co/JjKX2Q8eBY
— Instacart (@Instacart) March 23, 2020
The company has also introduced a "Leave at My Door" delivery feature, so customers can maintain physical distancing.
CEO Apoorva Mehta said that the company is "proud to serve as an essential service."
"Our teams are working around the clock to safely serve all members of our community," Mehta said, saying that the role of the company has taken on "an entirely new meaning" in light of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Toronto-based Inabuggy similarly says that traffic to their website has increased "significantly" and that they're seeing "thousands of orders per day."
The company is currently hiring packers, runners, pickers and drivers to meet growing demand, expressing that they "can't hire fast enough." For the moment, they advise that Canadians book deliveries at least a week in advance.
Our personal shoppers are diligently #delivering your #groceries all over #Toronto & #GTA, #Ottawa, #Montreal, #Calgary, #Edmonton and #Vancouver! #grocerydelivery pic.twitter.com/gTQpNsby9z
— INABUGGY (@inabuggy) March 17, 2020
Western Canada supermarket Save-On-Foods is also "experiencing extremely high web traffic."
A spokesperson said, "We're encouraging any customers that can shop in-store to please do so and leave our online delivery options available for those who are not able to get to the store — including seniors, people with disabilities and of course, those who are ill."
The company also warned that delivery options are "extremely limited," and their website reveals that Canadians will have to wait anywhere from 10-14 days for a delivery slot.
Like Instacart and Inabuggy, Save-On-Foods is also hiring "hundreds of new team members across all departments" in order to meet the growing demand.
With Canadian health experts warning that physical distancing could last for months, it seems that Canada's grocery delivery services will have their work cut out for them.
Instacart
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