Grocery retailer Meijer is bringing home delivery across its six-state footprint, starting with Grand Rapids, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, and will quickly follow with other major markets in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Wisconsin.
“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,” says Meijer President & CEO Rick Keyes. “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.”
Beginning March 29, Meijer customers in Grand Rapids with a Shipt membership will have the ability to shop 55,000 items across the retailer using the Shipt smartphone app, or place orders directly through shipt.com. Customers can schedule their orders to be delivered in as little as one hour, seven days a week.
Meijer and Shipt will launch the service in Fort Wayne and the Indianapolis area in April. Other major markets in the Midwest will be announced in the coming months.
“The way our customers shop continues to evolve,” says 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.”
Bill Smith, founder and CEO of Shipt, says the expansion of service at Meijer stores also will 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. “We are excited to partner with a leader in the retail industry who continues to put the customer first,” adds Smith.
The retailer’s decision to expand the availability of digital home delivery comes after its highly successful launch of the service in the Detroit area last fall, which prompted Meijer to roll out the service to other markets. Shipt members in the Detroit area placed more than 65,000 orders since September 2016.
The Shipt delivery service is membership-based, with either annual or monthly options. For $99 a year, Shipt members receive unlimited free grocery deliveries on all orders over $35.
After signing up for Shipt, members can digitally shop a large selection of Meijer groceries, fresh produce and everyday essentials, including baby, health and beauty products. They also can note any preferences, choose a preferred delivery window and pay for their order. A Shipt shopper will hand pick their items and deliver them in as little as one hour after the order is placed.
Because most Meijer stores are open 24 hours a day, Shipt deliveries will be available at most Meijer locations around the clock, seven days a week, with the exception of certain holidays.