FoodStorm’s new features help retailers prepare for the holidays

The holiday season is just around the corner, and with it comes the annual surge in prepared foods orders that often overwhelms grocers. To tackle this challenge, many retailers have turned to FoodStorm, Instacart’s order management system (OMS), to efficiently manage high-volume orders like Thanksgiving turkeys, full holiday meals and custom party platters. Numerous retailers have onboarded over the past few months to prepare for the holidays, joining hundreds that already use FoodStorm to power their fresh departments, streamlining order fulfillment and modernizing holiday inventory tracking methods. 

That’s why today, we’re introducing several new FoodStorm features, developed specifically to help grocers successfully navigate the holiday season in-store. These features, now available to all retailers, bring an overhaul to the OMS user interface, ensuring a more user-friendly experience. Retailer staff can now easily manage pickup orders, monitor payment statuses closely, and accurately handle items sold by weight, such as Thanksgiving turkeys, Hanukkah briskets or Christmas hams.

These updates make it easier for retailers to view all items in an order and check the current payment status to ensure accurate fulfillment. In-store teams can also conveniently access customer order information by scanning a barcode, which instantly displays the corresponding order on a mobile device. Customers also now have the option to settle their bills upon pickup, significantly reducing the need for issuing credits, refunds, and recharges. 

This year, customers can enjoy their holiday meals and catering packages from their favorite retailers, all made possible through FoodStorm. Here are some of the retailers offering holiday meals in 2023, where customers can easily place their order online through FoodStorm’s technology. Retailers will continue to add to their catering menus throughout the holiday season, so check back for more updates: 

West Coast:

• Andy’s Local Market – serving Marin County, CA
• Bi-Rite – serving the Bay Area, CA
• Bristol Farms – serving the greater Los Angeles, CA area
• Cardiff Seaside Market – serving Cardiff, CA
• Draeger’s Market – serving the Bay Area, CA
• Gus’s Community Market – serving San Francisco, CA
• Mollie Stone’s Market – serving the Bay Area, CA
• Murphy’s Markets – serving Humboldt County, CA
• New Seasons Market – serving the greater Portland, OR area
• Town & Country Markets – serving the greater Seattle, WA area

East Coast: 

• Balducci’s – serving Arlington, VA; Bethesda, MD; Philadelphia, PA; Rye Brook, NY
• Caraluzzi’s Markets – serving Southwest Connecticut
• Cardona’s Market – serving Albany, NY
• DeCicco & Sons – serving Southeast New York
• Food Bazaar – serving Trenton and Newark, NJ; the greater New York, NY area
• Friends’ Marketplace – serving Orleans, MA
• Fruit Center Marketplace – serving Milton, MA
• Joseph’s Classic Market – serving Southeast Florida
• King’s Food Markets – serving the greater Newark, NJ area; Garden City, NY; Greenwich, CT
• Janssen’s Market – serving Wilmington, DE
• McCaffrey’s Food Markets – serving the greater Philadelphia, PA area and greater Trenton, NJ area
• Roche Bros Supermarkets – serving Eastern Massachusetts
• Stew Leonard’s – serving Paramus, NJ; Yonkers, NY; Western Connecticut
• Uncle Giuseppe’s Marketplace – serving Eastern New Jersey; Long Island, NY; Yorktown Heights, NY
• Westside Market NYC – serving New York, NY

Midwest: 

• Lee’s Marketplace – serving Northern Utah
• Midtowne Market – serving St Charles, MO
• Plum Market – serving the greater Detroit, MI area
• Straub’s Fine Grocers – serving the greater St. Louis, MO area
• Sunset Foods – serving the greater Chicago, IL area
• The Grand Food Center – serving Winnetka, IL
• Village Market – serving Grosse Pointe, MI

South and Southwest: 

• Edward Food Giant – serving central Arkansas
• Milam’s Market – serving the greater Miami, FL area

Canada:

• Lina’s Italian Market – serving Alberta, Canada

By harnessing the power of cutting-edge technology provided by FoodStorm, grocers can meet the surging demand while maintaining their high service standards, not only during the holidays but throughout the entire year.

If you’re interested in Instacart Platform technology for your grocery business, click the button below to submit a Retailer Inquiry form.

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Rob Hill

Author

Rob Hill joined Instacart as General Manager, Order Ahead in August 2021 as part of the FoodStorm acquisition and leads the cross functional teams enabling order ahead retailer solutions as part of Instacart’s Connected Stores strategy. As the CEO of FoodStorm, Rob led the strategic direction and global growth of the business and is particularly passionate about driving business impact through technology. Rob has extensive experience leading SaaS businesses worldwide, having led multiple startup’s global scale up’s across North America, EMEA and Asia Pacific in industries spanning retail, hospitality, supply chain and education. Rob is a graduate of Swinburne University of Technology’s Bachelor of Information Technology scholarship program, and an alumni of Harvard Business School. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife and two young children.