Associated Food Stores (AFS), a retail cooperative, has announced an expanded partnership with Instacart to bring Instacart’s white-label e-commerce solutions, Storefront and Storefront Pro, to five of its owned and operated banners as well as more than 40 member-owned banners. This move aims to provide AFS’s grocery stores—including Fresh Market, Lin’s, Macey’s, Broulim’s, Davis Food & Drug, Kent’s, and Lee’s—with improved online shopping options and new retail media capabilities.
Nick Nickitas, General Manager of Independent Grocery and Mid-Market Retail Partnerships at Instacart, said: “We’re excited to partner with AFS to bring our white-label e-commerce solutions and retail media monetization to their owned and operated stores and independent retail banners. AFS has always championed innovation for local grocers, and together we’re scaling their digital transformation. With Instacart, AFS retailers are providing a seamless, connected shopping experience for their guests in-store and online, while maximizing retail media contribution to enhance profitable growth.”
Jason Sokol, Vice President of Marketing at AFS added: “Partnering with Instacart gives our local, independent retailers the ability to offer their shoppers a world-class online shopping platform – one that meets or exceeds what other regional or national grocers are doing today. With Storefront Pro, retailers have access to Carrot Ads, which fuels new opportunities for retail media growth while providing guests with a simple, reliable way to shop their favorite local stores online.”
CJ Davis, President of Davis Food & Drug noted: “Instacart’s Storefront Pro has allowed us to go online quickly and confidently with a best-in-class e-commerce solution that delivers strong growth and revenue opportunities. With Instacart’s premium white-label e-commerce solution, we saw a 24% increase in sales and our monthly retail media revenue grew by 2-3x with Instacart’s retail media solution Carrot Ads1.”
AFS is also utilizing Carrot Ads as part of its retail media network through its membership in Retailer Owned Food Distributors & Associates (ROFDA). This enables both owned-and-operated stores and member retailers using Storefront Pro or Caper Carts—Instacart’s AI-powered smart cart—to benefit from additional in-store and online advertising revenue streams.
The partnership builds on recent rollouts at AFS member retailers such as Davis Food & Drug—which implemented Caper Carts across all locations in 2024 along with electronic shelf label software Carrot Tags—and Stewart’s Marketplace which also debuted these technologies this year. Soelberg’s Market expanded its use of Caper Carts in 2024; it joined the Instacart App and now powers its website using Storefront Pro.
Storefront and Storefront Pro give AFS grocery banners the tools needed for expanded e-commerce operations. Those adopting Storefront Pro gain access to Carrot Ads for enhanced monetization across digital platforms. According to Instacart the company has over 350 customers using these solutions, alongside hundreds more catering storefronts supported by Foodstorm.
For further information about Instacart Storefront products visit https://www.instacart.com/company/retailer-platform/storefronts.
