Instacart, the web-based home grocery delivery service that launched in Fresno in September, is coming to Visalia Wednesday.

The San Francisco-based company began offering home delivery of groceries about five years ago, starting in the Bay Area, and then expanding to other parts of the country, including Northern and Southern California.

Instacart follows a model similar to Uber and Lyft, in that customers will be able to go online to make their orders, and “personal shoppers” using their own cars will be sent to the stores and do the shopping.

Participating stores include Smart & Final, Costco, CVS and Petco.

As part of the service, customers can watch online as each item is taken off a shelf and scanned by their shopper’s cell phone, and shoppers can communicate with the customers if items aren’t in stock to find out if they can buy alternate items or to discuss concerns about the quality of produce, such as if the avocados ordered don’t look good.

The personal shoppers collect the groceries, which can include non-food items like household products, makeup and even pots and pans. Customers can ask the personal shoppers if they‘re willing to pick up items at the stores not among the products listed in Instacart’s app or website.

The Visalia delivery area covers more than 100,000 households and will bring on more than 100 new shoppers.

Areas of service include Visalia, Farmersville, Ivanhoe, Tulare, Waukena, East Tulare Villa, Spinks Corner, Swall, Tagus, Paige, Woodville, Higby, Midvalley, Goshen, Cameron Creek Colony, Twin Buttes, Seville, Rayo, Rector, Peral, Mitchell Corner, Loma, Taurusa, Lindsay, Cairns Corner, Lucca, Tonyville, Burr, Fayette, Porterville, Strathmore, Plainview and Terra Bella.

Customers normally pay $5.99 per delivery, though first-time users will get free delivery for orders totaling $35 or more.

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