Costco is offering curbside pickup at three Albuquerque locations through a partnership with Instacart. All three locations are offering a selection of 2,000 grocery and non-food items during the initial rollout. Costco is testing curbside pickup on a “limited basis in one market at this time,” according to a statement sent to USA Today.
Each warehouse will have dedicated pickup parking spaces and send shoppers texts with instructions during the pickup process. The minimum size for curbside orders is $100, and the service comes with a $10 pickup fee, due to the service adding an “additional expense to our low-cost business model and limited markup structure,” according to the retailer’s website.
Costco already powers its delivery service through Instacart, making the solution provider a natural fit for the new service. In July 2020, the two companies partnered to launch home delivery at 76 Costco warehouses across Canada.
Costco has resisted adding curbside delivery even as competitors like Sam’s Club rolled out their own versions, but the option is rapidly becoming table stakes for brick-and-mortar retailers. The share of retailers offering curbside services increased to 23% in 2020 from 15% in 2019, and curbside pickup usage grew 67% year-over-year during Cyber Weekend 2020, according to data from Adobe.
Advertisement
