ESCANABA — Instacart, a retail delivery service whose shoppers hand pick and deliver items from local stores, announced it is expanding into the Escanaba area. The service began Thursday.

Escanaba area residents can now order from Meijer and have their groceries and everyday essentials delivered to their doorsteps in as little as one hour, according to a company press release. “Instacart received an overwhelming volume of requests for expansion into this region and is excited to now be delivering to the Escanaba area,” the pres release stated.

Service areas include: Escanaba, Riverland, Lake Bluff, West Gladstone, Gladstone, Kipling, and Brampton.

Instacart is also bringing income earning opportunities to the area with plans to on-board more than 100 new shoppers.

“Over the past year we’ve seen incredible demand in the Escanaba area,” said Scott Holloway, general manager at Instacart. “We work with a variety of local retailers to provide the freshest, highest quality groceries to our customers. Launching in Escanaba gives us an opportunity to expand service in Michigan. We’re also excited to build a world class shopper community, where we can offer fun and flexible income earning opportunities for our shoppers, who ultimately deliver this amazing service to the community.”

To use Instacart, customers go online or open the Instacart mobile app on their iPhone or Android device, select their city/store, add items to a virtual cart, then choose a delivery window and check out. An Instacart shopper accepts the order on his/her smartphone, uses the Instacart shopper app to guide them through shopping, and then delivers the order to the customer in the designated delivery timeframe.