FULLERTON, Calif. – While local convenience retailer Mission Market has offered a free delivery service for two years, it’s now making the service easier and more convenient for customers. Announced this week, Mission Market is partnering with GrubHub.com and Eat24.com to offer more than 1,300 products online for pickup or delivery. Customers can now use the retailer’s online interface to browse, select, pay for and receive updates on their order at the same prices available in-store.

With a minimum delivery order of $20, the new service expands the current downtown Fullerton delivery zone to a two-mile radius, with expectations that the delivery area will grow as demand for the service increases. Mission Market plans to eventually expand delivery to its other store in Anaheim, California, Mission Market Express, which is located inside the new ARTIC transportation center.

“I truly believe that convenience stores can function like little urban distribution centers,” Roland Foss, president of Progressive Convenience Inc., said. “We have the products you need on-hand, within a short distance from wherever you are, and you order from the apps you already use.”

According to Foss, those are the unique characteristics that allow Mission Market to deliver cheaper (free), faster (under 45 minutes) and with lower delivery minimums ($20) than all of its local competitors. 

Prompt and convenient delivery is becoming a core offering for many retailers in today’s “on-demand” consumer climate. Yet online ordering and delivery is still a big differentiator for convenience stores. By offering delivery, Mission Market widens its customer base, strengthens its brand promise, can better meet the needs of time-starved consumers and positions itself for strong future growth. 

For more on the ways that driven entrepreneurs are serving food and products with a heaping dose of convenience, read “From Store to Door” in the September issue of NACS Magazine.