Shoppers across southern Chautauqua County will soon be able to take advantage of a national, same-day grocery delivery service that is expanding into the local area.

Instacart, a fast-growing retail delivery service whose shoppers hand pick and deliver items from trusted local stores, announced today that it is expanding into the Jamestown area to serve over 24,000 households beginning Wednesday.

Until now, the most nearby market served by Instacart was Erie, Pa., but now consumers throughout the area can have their groceries delivered to their door from retailers such as Wegmans, CVS and Tops in as little as one hour. Instacart said the expansion of its services will now benefit shoppers in the areas of Jamestown, Busti, Lakewood, Ashville, Willow Brook, Ellicott, Falconer, Kiantone, Elmhurst, Bemus Point, Maple Springs, West Ellery, Chedwel, Celoron, Long View and Woodlawn.

“Over the past year we’ve seen incredible demand in the Jamestown area,” said Dave Osborne, Instacart’s senior regional director. “We work with a variety of local retailers to provide the freshest, highest quality groceries to our customers. Expansion into Jamestown gives us an opportunity to expand service in the New York market. We’re also excited to build a world-class shopper community, where we can offer fun and flexible income earning opportunities for our shoppers, who ultimately deliver this amazing service to the community.”

Instacart is an online service that people cross grocery shopping off their to-do lists with just a few clicks. Customers use the Instacart website — instacart.com — or mobile app to fill their virtual shopping cart with items from their favorite local stores and Instacart connects them with shoppers who hand-pick the items and deliver them straight to their door.

In order to use the Instacart service, customers must go to instacart.com or the Instacart mobile app on their iPhone or Android device, select their city and store, add items to a virtual cart, then choose a delivery window — within one hour, within two hours, or up to a week in advance — prior to check out. An Instacart shopper accepts the order on his or her smartphone, uses the Instacart shopper app to guide them through shopping, and then delivers the order to the customer in the designated delivery timeframe.

For orders of $35 or more the delivery fee is just $5.99; however, customers may also sign up for Instacart Express membership, which enables unlimited, free same-day delivery on orders of $35 or more. After a free trial period, Instacart Express membership is just $14.99 a month or $149 a year.

First-time users can also enter the code HIJAMESTOWN, which expires on Feb. 1, at checkout to get $20 off an order of $35 or more, plus a free first-time delivery.

To learn more about Instacart, or to open an account, visit instacart.com.