PERU — A new service can bring groceries right to your door.

Tops Friendly Markets at 50 Main St. in Peru began operating Instacart on Oct. 11.

Instacart, a U.S. company, partners with grocery chains, allowing customers to collect goods in a virtual cart and select a delivery time.

The Peru store’s delivery parameters include addresses with these ZIP codes: 12972 (Peru, AuSable, Harkness, Valcour), 12903 (Plattsburgh), 12962 (Morrisonville), 12944 (AuSable, Keeseville) and 12911 (AuSable, AuSable Chasm).

Director of Consumer Marketing and Digital Edward Rick said the grocery chain first partnered with the service in November of last year.

“We are so excited each and every time we expand the outreach of Instacart to reach more and more of our customers, as we know this added convenience helps give them back time in their already busy schedules,” he said in a press release.

—

Restructuring

The service is now available at 119 Tops stores — 90 percent of all of its locations, the release said.

Peru is the currently the only one in Clinton, Essex or Franklin counties to offer home delivery. Other Tops locations in the region are AuSable Forks, Elizabethtown and on Church Street in Saranac Lake.

A second Tops Market in Saranac Lake, on Lake Flower Avenue, closed recently as part of a financial restructuring; one of 10, it’s the only store in Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties on that list.

Tops Markets LLC filed for bankruptcy protection in February. The supermarket chain attributed its struggles to a competitive industry and falling food prices, an article in the Wall Street Journal said.

—

Delivery fees

Meanwhile, Instacart can deliver in as fast as one hour, but the service doesn’t come free.

Orders require a minimum total of $10 and come with an additional delivery fee.

It costs $9.99 to have an order of $35 or less delivered; for the “within one hour” option, the fee gets raised to $11.99.

Orders over $35 have a $5 delivery fee, but with the one-hour service, the fee becomes $7.99.

As of Thursday morning, same-day delivery was available, as were scheduled delivery times, stretching to Tuesday, Oct. 30.

Public and Relations Manager Kathy Romanowski-Sautter said Instacart oversees deliveries, so no new associates are hired through Tops to support the service.

—

Keeping up pace

Some items are not available for delivery, including alcohol, tobacco, prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs, gift cards and made-to-order food, an Instacart fact sheet said.

Instacart also offers a grocery-pickup option at some stores. Customers shop online, pay online and then pick up their goods at the store with no delivery fee. Romanowski-Sautter said that service is currently not slated for the Peru store.

Tops Markets Manager of Digital Marketing Jill Sirica said a few orders have already been delivered to online shoppers in the Peru area.

“It’s going well,” she said. “The service is still new to our customers in this area; however, the store is keeping up pace with our other Instacart delivery locations.

“We’re excited to see it grow.”

Learn more at www.instacart.com/peru-ny/tops-markets.