When people talk about quickly changing markets, they always mention the EV market, the world of technology and AI, scientific advances, etc. But when was the last time you heard about a change in the grocery shopping market? We all need and buy food, and yet we always do it the same way: drive to the store, wander around the store “looking” for the commodity we came for but, in reality, hoping something else will catch our eye that we might snack on later, and then we drive home. A small trip for some eggs could quickly become a 45 minute long adventure which ends with you leaving the store with four bags full of everything you could dream of, except the one thing you went for… eggs. I forget what I am shopping for all of the time. Well, thankfully that all changed around a decade ago with Instacart.

In 2012, Apoorva Mehta, Max Mullen, and Brandon Leonardo, recognized this problem and figured out an incredible solution. In a September 2023 Contrary Research article, journalists Cory Anderson and Sachin Maini write, “Born in India and raised in Canada, Mehta graduated from the University of Waterloo with an engineering degree and worked for Blackberry and Qualcomm. He then moved to Amazon, where he was a supply chain engineer for Amazon’s ecommerce fulfillment system. Mehta left Amazon in 2010 to become an entrepreneur. He came up with 20 failed startup ideas before landing on Instacart.” They then set the blueprint for this app: “Instacart’s product serves four stakeholders: consumers who use the app to purchase goods, shoppers who purchase and deliver goods, retailers who stock the goods, and brand partners who use Instacart to serve ads for high-intent shoppers.” In other words, Instacart gives the consumer the ability to always get exactly what they want on the day they want it. No longer do we have to waste extra money going to the grocery store and walking around like a chicken with our heads cut off. With just a few clicks, those eggs you need will be at your door.