7-Eleven says it’s trying to be as convenient as it possibly can. That’s the strategy behind the 93-year-old retailer’s new partnership with grocery delivery service Instacart.
The world’s largest convenience store operator also partners with Postmates, DoorDash, Google Eats, Uber Eats, Grubhub and Favor Delivery.
Linking with such platforms “enables us to provide customers with more options to get 7-Eleven delivered,” said Chris Tanco, 7-Eleven’s chief operating officer. Along with its proprietary 7NOW delivery app, the retailer offers on-demand ordering from more than 90% of its stores, he said.
For Instacart, 7-Eleven provides a new option for same-day delivery, sometimes as quickly as 30 minutes. It can compete with Amazon’s fastest Prime Now service for those times when the batteries go out on the TV remote or there’s no milk in the refrigerator.Dallas is part of the initial Instacart launch from more than 750 7-Eleven stores, which are also in Miami, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., including some areas of Virginia. The expansion to more than 7,000 7-Eleven stores will be “in the coming months,” the companies said.
Instacart says it believes people will use it the same way they use a 7-Eleven store to pick up milk, bread, eggs, beer, wine, snacks or over-the-counter meds.
“We know that sometimes people need a full fridge and pantry restock, and other times they simply need a couple items quickly,” said Nilam Ganenthiran, Instacart’s president.
The service starts at 8 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m., and shoppers can schedule deliveries in advance. The plan is to expand delivery times in the future.
