The Save Mart Companies has launched curbside pickup at Lucky and FoodMaxx stores throughout Northern California, extending the Instacart-powered service to all three of its core banners for the first time, including its value-format FoodMaxx stores.
The launch, effective Sept. 16, rounds out a year of steady digital and loyalty buildout for the Modesto, California-based grocer, which introduced automatic member pricing at Save Mart and Lucky in June and a record fuel-points promotion in July, and is among the retailers slated to add Instacart’s white-label AI shopping assistant announced this month. Bringing pickup to FoodMaxx also puts e-commerce convenience into the discount format, where such services have historically lagged.
‘Listening to our customers’
“We have a clear focus on continuing to make grocery shopping easier and more convenient for our customers, so we are thrilled to add this service to our Lucky and FoodMaxx stores,” said Vivek Kalpande, SVP of digital and e-commerce for The Save Mart Companies. “We are listening to our customers and evolving with their needs. Our customers can now shop us however they would like, in-store, on the web, or on the app, with a new pickup option that is coupled with amazing promos and deals.”
Customers shop online or through the Lucky or FoodMaxx apps, and store team members bring orders directly to their cars and load the groceries. To drive trial, first-time customers can save $40 off their first three curbside orders of $100 or more on eligible products using code PICKUP40 through Dec. 31.
The Save Mart Companies operates 200 stores in California, western Nevada, Oregon and Washington under the Save Mart, Lucky, FoodMaxx and Roth’s and Chuck’s Fresh Market banners, with 11,000 associates. Its Cares Foundation has donated more than $6 million to local communities.
Related: Save Mart, Lucky Launch Member Pricing Program With Automatic Savings
Categories: Save Mart, Online Grocery Technology, West
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Trade-angle notes: the second paragraph strings this into the digital arc Shelby has covered all year, June’s member pricing, July’s fuel promotion, and the Cart Assistant commitment from last week’s Instacart coverage, so the curbside launch reads as one move in a deliberate sequence rather than a standalone service note; the member-pricing story is the Related on that basis. The FoodMaxx angle gets called out in both the lede and context since value formats adopting pickup is the structural signal for your readers. Kalpande’s quote is trimmed of its closing sentence, the release’s stray hyphens around “on eligible products” are cleaned up, and the promo details are framed as the trial-driving mechanism they are. One small thing: I left “eligible locations” implicit in “throughout Northern California” since the release doesn’t enumerate stores; if Save Mart’s team provides a store count for the launch, it strengthens the lede.