Fresh Thyme adds grocery pickup

Fresh Thyme Market this week said it is adding grocery pickup at all of its 71 stores in 10 states.

Orders will be picked by Fresh Thyme employees, the Downers Grove, Illinois-based grocer said, and customers can cancel or edit their orders until picking begins. The service costs $1.95 for orders over $35.

“We are excited to bring a more-convenient way of shopping to our loyal and new customers with this e-commerce launch,” Fresh Thyme President Liz Zolcak said in a statement. “We are proud to be able to bring our great in-store shopping experience to life, online.”

Grocery pickup emerged as a major growth channel during the early days of the pandemic and continued to see strong consumer demand until recently.

But pickup sales declined 8.5% in March, according to the latest Brick Meets Click/Mercatus Grocery Shopping Survey released this week.

“Lower-income households are more attracted to pickup services because it costs much less to use than delivery, due to the additional charges, fees and tips,” Brick Meets Click Partner David Bishop said in a statement. “During March 2023, households earning under $50,000 annually were 34% more likely to use pickup while households making over $200,000 per year were over twice as likely to use delivery.”

March saw a significant change in SNAP benefits, in which more than three-quarters of households participating in the aid program lost the additional $95 per month they’d been receiving in pandemic-related support.

Fresh Thyme launched on-demand delivery via Instacart in 2018.

Fresh Thyme, which focuses on its produce department and products catering to special diets, opened its first stores in 2014 as Fresh Thyme Farmers Market. Meijer has been an investor in the concept since the grocery retailer’s beginning. Fresh Thyme rebranded in 2020.