Wegmans to Offer Curbside Grocery Pickup at all Hometown-Area Stores
Every Wegmans Food Markets shopper in or near the grocer’s hometown of Rochester, N.Y., will soon have the option of ordering their groceries online and picking them up curbside, since the company is introducing the click-and-collect service to all of its Rochester-area stores by the end of February.
“Our customers are busy, so when it comes to grocery shopping, they appreciate a range of options that allows them to get the task done with ease, when and how they want,” noted Erica Tickle, Wegmans’ ecommerce group manager. “Now, it’s as simple as placing your order online and picking it up curbside at your convenience, all with no additional delivery fee or tipping.”
The service, offered in partnership with San Francisco-based Instacart, enables customers to visit a dedicated website or log on to the Instacart app to shop for items, chose a pickup time, and pay for the order. Customers will receive an order confirmation with instructions and a phone number to call when they’re within 10 minutes of the store. On arrival, customers pull into the designated curbside pickup lane and a Wegmans associate will place their groceries in the car.
Wegmans launched click-and-collect in its home region last March at its Pittsford, N.Y. store, and in September, at the Chili-Paul Wegmans, in Rochester. The expansion of the service to all remaining Rochester-area stores began last week and should wrap up by Feb. 28. Currently, 13 stores in the region offer the service, with six more slated to roll it out.
Orders must be for a minimum of $10 worth of groceries to be eligible for curbside pickup. Packed orders are held in a temperature-controlled staging area inside the store until customers come to pick them up.
Wegmans delivery, powered by Instacart, is available throughout the company’s six-state footprint, and starts at $3.99 – or free for Instacart Express Members – on orders of $35 or more. For delivery and pickup, the grocer increases prices on items ordered to cover the cost of the services.
In other Wegmans news, the grocer preparing to open its first store in Delaware, according to local news reports. Newport-based Pettinaro Development said that it has signed a lease with the grocer for a site in Greenville, outside Wilmington. Before construction can begin, however, the development plans would need to be approved by the New Castle County Council.
Wegmans operates 98 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts. The company is No. 14 on Progressive Grocer’s 2018 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.
