Instacart Announces Distribution Of New Health & Safety Kits For Shopp...

SAN FRANCISCO, April 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Instacart, the North American leader in online groceries, today announced plans to distribute free health and safety kits to Instacart full-service shoppers as a part of its ongoing commitment to safely serve all members of its shopper community in the wake of COVID-19. Instacart worked over the last several weeks with several third-party manufacturers, in consultation with medical and infectious disease experts, to source and develop new health and safety kits for shoppers that include face masks, hand sanitizer and thermometers. Additionally, the company announced the launch of its new COVID-19 Resource Center to share details with all members of the Instacart community about how the company is responding to the evolving COVID-19 crisis.

"We're singularly focused on the health and safety of our shopper community. Our teams have been working around the clock over the last few weeks to proactively secure personal protective equipment like hand sanitizer and face masks, without taking away valuable resources from healthcare workers given inventory delays and global supply scarcity," said Nilam Ganenthiran, President of Instacart. "We want to provide customers with an essential service they can rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart personal shoppers. As COVID-19 evolves, today's health and safety solutions will be tomorrow's table stakes, and our teams are working quickly to introduce new services and features to ensure our shopper community is supported as this situation unfolds."

Over the last several weeks, Instacart worked to source and develop new shopper health and safety kits with multiple third-party manufacturers. The kits will be available to Instacart full-service shoppers to order at no cost beginning next week, via a website built for the shopper community. Shoppers will be able to request a kit by registering with their Instacart shopper email address. For in-store shoppers, Instacart has also sourced and will be directly distributing face masks to shoppers at retail locations where the company has in-store operations. Instacart's health and safety kits include:

Face Mask - A washable and reusable cloth face mask that's made of cotton and polyester to use while shopping. These are multi-use masks that do not impact the healthcare and medical community's supply.
Hand Sanitizer - An ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizer that exceeds the CDC's guidance.
Thermometer - A reusable forehead thermometer that provides a fast and accurate temperature check in approximately 15 seconds.

"Over the last month, Instacart has been working closely with the CDC, state and local health officials, and a panel of medical and academic experts to ensure we're providing shoppers with all of the recommended health and safety resources to support them while they shop. The guidance from the CDC has been consistent and clear over the last few weeks – social distancing, frequent hand washing with warm, soapy water for 20 seconds, and the use of hand sanitizer when water and soap is not readily available remain the best deterrents to the spread of COVID-19," said Dilshika Wijesekera, Instacart's Director of Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance. "While the CDC over the last few weeks has advised against the distribution of N95 and surgical face masks to enable frontline health workers to have first access to the supplies they need, we understand the situation is evolving fast. As a result, Instacart has taken proactive steps over the last several weeks to secure face masks and thermometers, as well as work with a third-party to manufacture hand sanitizer, for its shopper community. Our goal is to offer personal health and safety supplies without impacting the critical supply needs of medical personnel and first responders throughout North America."

Instacart has also introduced a number of health guidelines and safety resources to further support Instacart shoppers, including:

Health and safety guidelines in partnership with Instacart's advisory panel of medical and academic experts
Sick pay for in-store shoppers
COVID-19 bonuses for in-store shoppers
Increased batch promotions for full-service shoppers
Extended pay for part-time employees and any shopper affected by COVID-19
Implementing pre-opening and post-closing hours access for Instacart shoppers in partnership with retailers to promote effective social distancing at some of the busiest stores

Additionally, the company has launched several new product features to support shoppers in the wake of COVID-19, including:

"Leave at My Door" delivery
Contactless alcohol delivery
In-app incident reporting
In-app customer order issue review
Ratings forgiveness
Canceling batches made easier
Automatically canceling out of stock orders
Mobile Checkout available everywhere
New "Customer Default Tip" feature

Instacart also launched today a new COVID-19 Resource Center — covidresponse.instacart.com — where the company can continuously share details with all members of its community about how Instacart is responding to the evolving COVID-19 crisis. The site includes information about new shopper guidelines, resources and features; product and support information for customers; details on the health and safety advisory panel Instacart is consulting on COVID-19; and more.

About Instacart

Instacart is the North American leader in online groceries and one of the fastest-growing companies in ecommerce. Instacart shoppers offer same-day delivery and pickup services to bring fresh groceries and everyday essentials to busy people and families across the U.S. and Canada. Instacart has partnered with more than 350 beloved national, regional and local retailers, including Albertsons, ALDI, Costco, Kroger, Loblaw, Publix, Sam's Club, Sprouts, Walmart Canada, and Wegmans, among others, to deliver from more than 25,000 stores across more than 5,500 cities in North America. Instacart's delivery service is available to more than 85% of U.S. households and 70% of Canadian households. The company's cutting-edge enterprise technology also powers the ecommerce platforms of some of the world's biggest retail players, supporting their white-label websites, applications and delivery solutions. Instacart offers an Instacart Express membership for unlimited free delivery on orders over $35. For more information or to start shopping, visit www.instacart.com. For anyone interested in becoming an Instacart shopper, visit https://shoppers.instacart.com/.

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