Meijer in deal to expand delivery service
Six months after launching home delivery, Meijer is expanding its breadth.
The grocery and general merchandise retailer is getting ready to offer home delivery across its six-state footprint, starting with Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 29, and Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, Indiana in April. Meijer also plans to continue rolling out the service to major markets in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Wisconsin, the grocer said.
Leveraging its relationship with on-demand grocery delivery provider Shipt, Meijer is enabling customers to shop more than 55,000 items using the Shipt app in iOS or Android, or online. A Shipt shopper will hand pick their items and deliver them in as little as one hour after the order is placed.
The Shipt delivery service is membership-based. For either $99 a year or a monthly fee, Shipt members receive unlimited free grocery deliveries on all orders over $35. Orders under this threshold are subject to a delivery fee.
Meijer initially launched the service across 25 participating Detroit-area Meijer stores in September. Since then, the partners have filled more than 65,000 orders.
“We are excited to expand our relationship with Shipt because together we can offer customers across the Midwest a whole new level of convenience, product variety, and service not available before,” Meijer president and CEO Rick Keyes said. “Now customers can shop a complete grocery list online, having access to our world class assortment of fresh produce, meat, dairy and a number of other essentials that Shipt will hand select from a local Meijer store and deliver to a customer’s doorstep.”
The delivery expansion will also help create an estimated 10,000 jobs in six states in 2017. Shipt will build networks of hundreds of personal shoppers and identify opportunities to support community organizations in each Meijer market offering the service, according to Bill Smith, founder & CEO of Shipt.
“The way our customers shop continues to evolve,” said Meijer chairman Hank Meijer. “We believe the high-touch service that Shipt offers, coupled with what our customers love about shopping at Meijer, creates a new type of shopping experience.”