Grocery delivery service Instacart says order volume has surged in recent weeks due to COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement, the company says in the last few weeks, order volume has grown 150 per cent year-over-year, with the average customer basket size increasing by 15 per cent as well.
Last week, the company announced plans to bring on 30,000 shoppers in Canada, and since the news, 250,000 people have signed up to become shoppers.
Instacart partners with 17 Canadian retailers in Loblaws, Walmart, M&M Food Market and others.
The company was under fire just last week when thousands of its U.S. workers threatened a massive strike over safety concerns.
Despite new measures from the company including providing masks, thermometres and hand sanitizer to shoppers, some employees still did, as did other gig economy workers.
As for how long it's taking for orders to be delivered, Instacart says it can't provide an average time because delivery windows are specific to individual store volume and shopper availability, so times will vary.
Given the demand, Loblaws recently announced it was eliminating pickup feeds and lowering delivery costs.
NEWSTALK1010 has reached out to Longo's delivery service, Grocery Gateway, but has not received numbers as of yet.