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Grocery-ordering and -delivery provider Instacart says Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., a food wholesaler, expanded its partnership to include e-commerce and same-day delivery services to grocers that belong to the cooperative.
The broader deal also includes access to Caper Carts, Instacart’s artificial intelligence-enhanced smart shopping carts. More than 800 AWG grocers currently use Instacart. Overall, Kansas City, Kan.-based AWG has more than 1,100 members with more than 3,500 locations. It had $12.3 billion in consolidated sales in 2022.
Though San Francisco-based Instacart has been known for its online ordering and shopping experience, its Caper Carts combine digital technology with a cart consumers roll through grocery aisles.
Consumers at a Caper Carts-enabled grocery store use it by grabbing a cart—they do not have to download an app to use it—and add items as they shop. The cart has a built-in scale for produce and similar weighed items. Once done shopping, the consumer can pay using the display screen on the cart and leave with a digital receipt sent by text or email.
Instacart says the AI component and cameras can automatically identify items as they are placed in the cart. “AWG members will deploy these smart carts to transform the traditional checkout experience, allowing customers to bag items as they shop and make payments from anywhere in the store. Customers will also be able to link their loyalty account to the carts, gaining access to personalized promotions and savings as they shop,” Instacart says.
AWG also makes the traditional online shopping tools from Instacart available to participating grocers. “Once the grocer is live on the Instacart App, customers can visit the Instacart Web site or download the mobile app, enter their city, select their store, and start adding items to their Instacart grocery cart,” Instacart says. “An Instacart shopper will pick and deliver the order within the customer’s chosen time frame—whether on the same day or scheduled up to two weeks in advance.”
Instacart acquired Caper AI, developer of the technology in Caper Carts in 2021.
