HOUSTON, TX--(Marketwired - Aug 27, 2014) - Instacart (www.Instacart.com), the only service that can deliver groceries from multiple local stores within an hour, announced that it has launched Houston's first one-hour grocery delivery service.

Starting today, Instacart customers in Houston can order groceries from both Whole Foods Market and H-E-B. Additional stores will be added in the coming weeks, and customers can combine items from multiple stores into one order.

Originally launched in San Francisco and since expanded into many other major cities, Instacart has disrupted the traditional grocery delivery space with its crowdsourced labor force dubbed "Personal Shoppers" who shop for and deliver grocery orders providing their own transportation in as little as one hour. This eliminates the need for costly infrastructure such as inventory, warehouses, trucks and full-time drivers.

Houston is Instacart's 14^th city and is part of the company's planned expansion to 17 major cities throughout the U.S. by end of year.

Instacart will initially serve the areas of downtown Houston and inside the loop, west of downtown, including the neighborhoods of Montrose, The Heights, River Oaks, West U, Rice Military, Memorial Park, The Galleria, Bellaire, Briargrove, Memorial Villages, Midtown, Washington Ave, Upper Kirby and the Museum District. A map of Instacart's coverage areas can be found at www.instacart.com/locations.

Houston customers who order on August 27 will receive a free month of deliveries.

"Houston is a city whose population is exploding with growth faster than any other major city outside of NYC," said Houston City Launcher Matt O'Connor. "The proportion of young professionals who work long hours is very high in Houston and we expect the convenience of Instacart for grocery delivery to resonate with them. We had an overwhelming amount of requests from Houston to bring our service here and are excited to make this a reality. Launching in August is perfect timing as we hope to save Houstonians from lugging groceries home in the dog days of summer."

Customers can open an account at www.Instacart.com, and get free delivery on their first order of $10 or more. Instacart also offers an Amazon-Prime like service called Instacart Express -- an annual membership that eliminates delivery fees for all orders of $35 or more. The cost is just $99. Customers can sign up for a free two-week trial at www.instacart.com/express.

Note to reporters: Instacart can create a unique promo code for your outlet for free credit on the service. Please email matt@instacart.com if you're interested.

About Instacart
Instacart is the only service that can deliver groceries from multiple local stores within an hour, and is often less expensive for consumers than a personal, time-consuming trip to the grocery store. Customers in San Francisco, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Jose, Seattle and Washington, DC can choose from over 350,000 items from local grocery stores and large chains like Whole Foods Market, Safeway, Shaw's, BJ's Wholesale and Costco. Instacart is disrupting the traditional grocery delivery business with its approach, which utilizes a crowdsourced model of Personal Shoppers who provide their own transportation and smartphones to shop and deliver groceries to customers. This model eliminates the need for costly infrastructure such as warehouses, trucks and full-time drivers. Learn more at www.Instacart.com.