Sobeys parent rolls out same-day delivery via Instacart
Canadian grocery conglomerate Empire Company Ltd. is making a number of its banners available on the Instacart app for same-day delivery in as fast as an hour.
Rolling out initially throughout the province of Ontario, more than 250 stores of Empire banners including Sobeys, FreshCo, FarmBoy and Longo’s are now accepting digital orders for both grocery and household items from the Instacart e-commerce site and app.
Empire, which has offered online delivery via its proprietary Viola platform since 2020, plans to expand the service in partnership with Instacart across Canada.
"We are excited to be expanding our e-commerce offering and continuing to grow the market," said Doug Nathanson, chief development officer, Empire. "Through this new partnership with Instacart, Empire has expanded how customers can shop our banners, giving us access to a larger segment of the e-commerce market."
Consumers can visit the Instacart Canadian website or app and navigate to the Empire banner storefront of their choice.
Instacart expands presence in Canada
Empire joins over 90 other retail banners in Canada that deliver from more than 6,000 locations across all 10 provinces that are available for same-day delivery on the Instacart marketplace.
These include the Canadian banner of Amazon’s Whole Foods Market natural and organic foods grocery chain, which began offering fast delivery from select stores via Instacart in February 2024.
This partnership marked something of an about-face for Whole Foods, which partnered with Instacart to provide one-hour delivery of online orders in 15 U.S. metro areas in 2014. However, parent company Amazon ended the arrangement in 2019.
In October 2021, Instacart expanded its presence in Quebec. The company, which initially launched Quebec operations in Montreal in June 2021, branched out into Quebec City.
The grocery technology company also added more than 20 new Canadian retail banners and grew the number of stores in Canada it delivers from by 60% in 2022, including new and expanded same-day delivery partnerships with The Bay, Rexall, and Linen Chest; as well as Metro banners Food Basics, Adonis, and Super C.
[READ MORE: Instacart adds more than 20 new Canadian retail partners]
"Today is a significant milestone as we welcome the Empire banner stores on the Instacart app," said Chris Rogers, chief business officer at Instacart. "It not only deepens our commitment to serving Canadian communities, but also enhances our mission to make grocery shopping effortless for everyone."
Based in San Francisco, Instacart has more than 1,500 retail partners on its platform and is available to over 98% of households in the United States and Canada.
