Food delivery services see boost in orders
Lisa Clark-Black of North Strabane Township has ordered groceries from Instacart at least once a week for her family of five for the past year. Typically, the order is delivered in about two hours.
But when she placed her order on Monday, it arrived late Tuesday afternoon.
“There was no meat, and there were substitutions, like instead of green peppers they had red and yellow peppers, but I was surprised that I got mostly everything on my order,” said Black.
Other items were unavailable – bread and flour among them – so Black made a trip to Giant Eagle, where she found items she needed.
During the coronavirus crisis, grocery delivery apps like Instacart, Shipt and Walmart Grocery are in demand more than ever because people don’t want to go into a store.
That growing demand, however, has put pressure on e-commerce vendors and caused a slowdown in delivery.
Katie Stefko-Speer said she recently started ordering groceries from Walmart, and loved it. But an order she placed last week was canceled and she hasn’t been able to reschedule a new delivery date since.
Walmart’s home page now carries a notice that “NextDay Delivery” is currently unavailable.
Similarly, deliveries from Target.com and Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, Amazon’s grocery sites, have advised customers that inventory and delivery may be temporarily unavailable due to increased demand.
Instacart and other delivery services have pointed out the fact they now offer a “contactless” delivery option – where grocery orders are left on the porch – which helped boost orders from people practicing social distancing, especially the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions.
Brick and mortar stores, too, have been wiped out of supplies, including toilet paper and meat, and people have waited in long lines as they stock up to spend upcoming weeks at home.