Per a press release issued by the City of Whitewater, residents in the City of Whitewater are now eligible to have groceries delivered directly to their doorstep from Festival Foods in Fort Atkinson or Janesville within two hours.
Festival Foods is known to work closely with and get involved in the communities in which they serve. It is a family and employee-owned grocery company operating stores throughout Wisconsin with their headquarters located in DePere. It was founded as Skogen’s IGA by Paul and Jane Skogen in 1946 and is still owned by the Skogen family.
Economic Development Director, Cathy Anderson reached out to Festival Foods in hopes to expand their delivery service to include Whitewater. Festival Foods agreed and this service is now available for many within the 53190 zip code. UPDATE: Delivery is available to the areas shown in red on the revised map above. The best way to see if delivery is available to your residence is to enter your address on the website. Note that an initial screen that pops up will ask whether you wish to try a special subscription offer from Instacart, which after a 2-week trial period would cost $99/year. It appears that there may be little/no benefit to this offer under the Festival program.
“It is very exciting to work with a company willing to expand their local service and assist the Whitewater community,” said Anderson. “I placed my first order and was amazed at how simple, easy and quick the process was. It is very user friendly and the items I needed were on my doorstep within about two hours.”
Festival Foods contracts with Instacart allowing for a personalized home delivery service. Residents can visit the Instacart website, https://www.instacart.com/store/festival-foods/storefront or download the app to their smartphone. Enter the zip code of 53190, create an account with an email address and you can shop the virtual aisles of the store as if shopping it in person. Options for delivery of 2 hours, 5 hours or a window of your choice are available.
A nominal delivery fee may be applied to some orders and residents have the opportunity to tip the delivery driver if they wish.
“What a unique, convenient and safe service for the Whitewater community to benefit from in this time of uncertainty,” said Anderson.
Banner note: The Gazette on January 12, 2021 also has an article on this new service. It includes this quote from Anderson: “Monday’s news, while it is welcome, does not end the effort to bring a grocery store to the city,” she said.
Banner note: On the Instacart site you will note that there are several other grocers (from Milton and Janesville), as well as a few other retailers, that may offer delivery to your address. All of those other grocers, however, indicate that their pricing through Instacart may be higher than their in-store pricing. Festival states that their pricing is the same as the shelf price.
The City of Whitewater provides efficient and high-quality services which support living, learning, playing and working in an exceptional community. Visit www.whitewater-wi.gov for community information and updates.
