Coronavirus fears boosting grocery delivery, house cleaning services

Consumer fear over the spread of coronavirus has lifted sales for companies like same-day grocery delivery services such as Instacart and Las Vegas-based home cleaning service Superb Maids.

Instacart said it saw its growth rate surge by 10 times over the past three days while business in California, Washington, Oregon and New York surged by 20 times. The company operates the same-day grocery delivery service for stores like Costco, Sprouts, CVS and Sam’s Club.

“Over the last few days, we’ve seen a surge in customer demand for pantry items such as powdered milk and canned goods, as well as personal care products like hand sanitizer and vitamins,” the company said in a statement. “We remain fully operational across North America and our goal is to continue to serve our community safely while also ensuring our customers have access to uninterrupted delivery and pickup service for their groceries and household essentials.”

It said the top five searched items across the markets it serves were hand sanitizer, vitamins, powdered milk, face masks and canned goods.

The company offers delivery from 25,000 stores across 5,500 cities and more than 350 retailers. It works with more than 10 retailers in Las Vegas and nearly 20 retail partners across the state such as Petco, Albertsons, Smith’s, Vons, El Super and Smart & Final.

Meanwhile, Elena Ledoux, chief executive of Superb Maids, said she’s fielded more inquiries from potential customers interested in having their home disinfected.

“I think for most of the population they see (home cleaning) as cosmetic, but now more than ever people are focused on their health and cleanliness of their surrounding so it has been in a weird way helpful, which I didn’t expect,” Ledoux said.

She said current clients have yet to add more appointments, but did say some clients have rescheduled services because they’ve fallen ill.

“There’s a lot of bugs going around this season,” she said. “I just feel like there’s a lot more flu (cases) from the people in my own circle and everybody is having a cold to some degree or another.”

Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.