Independent grocers can now compete with larger grocery delivery services.

Available in more than 25 states across the U.S., Mercato Green offers two membership plans. For $8 a month, billed annually, the Neighborhood plan gives members free grocery delivery from stores within a three-mile radius. For $23 a month, the City plan extends to a ten-mile radius. Both plans offer a 14-day free trial. Minimum orders vary by store, and the number of stores in each market also varies. For example, in Chicago, these are the available options:

“We’re making local grocery delivery more accessible to everyone,” said Bobby Brannigan, Mercato Mercato founder and CEO. “We all lead busy lives and time is often our most constrained resource. A simple trip to the grocery store can take an hour, or more, and many people go multiple times a week. Mercato Green helps reduce the time people spend on grocery shopping and increases access to these great stores. Since the monthly cost of the program is around the price of a single grocery delivery, it’s a great value as well.”

To enroll, shoppers can to go Mercato.com/Green online. They then put in their zip code, find their favorites including specialty stores, meat markets, fish and seafood markets and other independent grocers, and place their orders online. Most orders are delivered the same day within an hour or two.

As an added membership perk, for every order placed, Mercato will plant a tree through a partnership with the Eden Reforestation Projects to help reduce their carbon footprint.

“We're committed to giving back to the community and environment. For every purchase you make with the Mercato Green subscription program, we will donate a tree to the Eden Reforestation Organization to support healthier, cleaner communities around the world and take care of our beautiful planet,” says Mercato on its website.

Insider Take:

By 2021, the online grocery market is expected to be $29.7 billion. While Mercato is not likely to take a significant portion of that, this membership provides independent groceries and specialty food markets with an opportunity to make their wares available to a wider audience. It also helps them to compete with the likes of Amazon Fresh, Walmart’s new grocery delivery service, Safeway and other large retailers who can more easily do large-scale grocery delivery. This is a great example of how the subscription business model makes an opportunity possible for businesses that would not otherwise be able to do on their own.

Dana Neuts is Subscription Insider's Senior Staff Writer, covering our daily subscription news as well as member features, case studies, and reports.  

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