Save Mart jumps into online grocery arena

The Save Mart Cos. has made a foray into online shopping with the debut of a click-and-collect grocery service.

This week, the Modesto, Calif.-based supermarket operator launched ClickCart, which enables customers to buy groceries through its retail banner websites or mobile apps and pick them up the same day. The service is currently available at two locations: the Save Mart store on Pelandale Avenue in Modesto and the Lucky California store on Fallon Road in Dublin, Calif.

“ClickCart allows families with limited free time to order online in the convenience of their own home or  on the go and pick up curbside,” Kim Musgrave, director of digital and loyalty marketing at Save Mart Cos., said in a statement. “We may not be the first grocer to offer online shopping, but we took the time to make sure our service reflected our shopper’s needs.”

A ClickCart in-store pickup station.

Personal shoppers at the stores pick the items ordered and hand them to customers. Orders can be picked up two ways. Customers can park in a specially marked pickup spot, call the number on the sign and have their groceries brought out to them, or they can go inside and collect their order at the ClickCart counter in the front of store and have an associate walk out with them and load the groceries in their car. Payment can be made online at the time of the order or at the pickup site.

Save Mart said on its website that there’s a four-hour minimum time window between order placement and pickup. For example, an order placed at 11 a.m. may be ready for pickup by 3 p.m. Each order carries a $5 service fee, but for ClickCart’s launch, Save Mart is waiving the fee for a limited time.

Products available for order via ClickCart include alcoholic beverages; dry, nonperishable groceries; fresh produce, meat and seafood; fresh bakery; service deli items; and hot rotisserie and fried chicken. Customers also can provide instructions online to the personal shopper at the time of the order, such as “ripe bananas.”

Members of the Save Smart and Lucky You loyalty programs also can load in-store and online savings — including coupons, points, rewards and eScrip — to their accounts via the website or app and have them applied to their ClickCart order.

Save Mart said it piloted the ClickCart program earlier this year with employees at the Pelandale Avenue store in Modesto. Plans call for the service to roll out to several more Save Mart and Lucky stores this year.

Overall, Save Mart Cos. operates 214 traditional and price-impact supermarkets under Save Mart, Lucky, FoodMaxx, S-Mart Foods and Maxx Value Foods banners, including 205 in California and nine in Nevada.