Walmart pilots with Instacart on delivery in Tulsa, California 

Walmart is partnering with San Fransisco-based Instacart for grocery and general merchandise delivery in Tulsa, Okla., and the California cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. The same-day service is in addition to the online grocery pickup and delivery service Walmart operates in hundreds of U.S. markets.

Sam’s Club has used Instacart as a delivery partner for more than two years, but this is the first partnership Walmart has had with third-party shopping startup.

“We’re always looking for partners to help us better serve our customers who love the value we bring with pickup and delivery. They’ve turned to us during the pandemic to bring them their goods safely and easily. As we continue to expand our own delivery from nearly 3,000 stores reaching nearly two-thirds of American households, we’re excited to test and learn in four markets reaching new customers with Instacart,” Walmart said in a statement.

Walmart already uses third-party partners for its grocery delivery business as well as testing its own delivery service which is now available in close to 3,000 of its stores. The retail giant also employs thousands of personal shoppers and stagers who pick a customer’s grocery orders and stage them for pickup and delivery.

The new partnership with Instacart follows Walmart’s announcement of Express Delivery, a two-hour, expedited delivery service for grocery and other products which are fulfilled by stores. This service costs $10 on top of the $10 delivery fee. Walmart also recently unveiled its Delivery Unlimited program which costs $98 a year and allows consumers to get grocery products delivered to their homes for no per-order fee.

Instacart already partners with 400 retailers including Springdale-based Harps. Instacart also recently expanded its partnerships with Big Lots, Rite Aid and Costco this year, now delivering alcohol and prescriptions. The new pilot partnership with Walmart is aimed at getting orders for food, personal care item, and general merchandise to customers as fast as one hour, according to an Instacart statement.