LAKELAND – If shoppers prefer the Instacart app for home delivery of a PubSub, that option is now available.

Instacart said in a news release last week that it wanted customers to “break up with takeout,” saying Publix Super Markets was among the grocers with the new app-based ordering option.

The new interface, entitled Ready Meals Hub, offers hundreds of ready-made meals for home delivery within 30 minutes, . The new user interface is a “cost-effective alternative to restaurant takeout from customers’ favorite grocers,” Instacart said.

“Instacart’s solution to showcase prepared meal items is a win for our customers,” said Erik Katenkamp, Publix vice president of omnichannel and application development, in the Instacart release.

“In addition to the convenience of being able to order freshly prepared ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat items for rapid delivery, our customers can also include a handful of grocery staples in their rapid delivery order – making it easier than ever to grab lunch and a few items for tonight’s dinner, all in a single order,” Katenkamp said.

Instacart users across 35 states have access to the Ready Meals Hub for prepared meals delivered from more than 4,100 grocery stores, the release stated. That includes grab-and-go salads and sandwiches.

Instacart hopes to capitalize on the recent trend toward home delivery of prepared foods.

“The U.S. chilled and deli food market size was expected to reach more than $40 billion as of October 2021 and is projected to reach more than $108 billion by 2026, according to market analytics firm Research and Markets," the Jan. 13 Instacart release stated.

The release also said order-ahead items and prepared foods can be “more profitable than traditional groceries like produce and packaged goods.”

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Some 73% of North American families prepare meals at home. But 55% of these meals combined prepared and from-scratch ingredients at 55%, according to the food industry association FMI. The industry group found that 64% of consumers used timesaving “ready-to-eat” items like pre-made salads and ready-to-eat meat for mealtimes.

Instacart said customers who purchase prepared foods and catering items like hot and cold side dishes, cakes and sushi have significantly larger baskets and shop more frequently than other customers.

“With our new Ready Meals Hub, we’re dishing up inspiring, more affordable and nutritious food alternatives to restaurant delivery that make it easier for consumers to break up with takeout this year, said Daniel Danker, vice president and head of product at Instacart."

“We’re also helping retailers drive more sales and increase their ‘share of stomach’ when it comes to their customers’ daily mealtime decisions,” he said in the prepared statement.

Instacart also highlighted its recent acquisition of FoodStorm, a software that connects users to cloud-based apps.

FoodStorm offers multi-channel ordering – ecommerce, phone or in-store kiosk – order management, and payment and fulfillment, Instacart said.

The technology also integrates with a variety of third-party systems, including point-of-sale systems, and can help grocers with surveys and data collection, as well as marketing and promotions.

The Ready Meals Hub announcement by Instacart barely two months after it launched Publix Quick Picks across Publix’s entire seven-state area to enable 30-minute priority home delivery options of fresh groceries and household items. Publix Quick Picks first launched in September in Tampa, before expanding across Publix’s operating footprint in November.

According to Instacart, its delivery service starts at $3.99 for same-day orders of $35 or more, and priority delivery rates can vary. With an optional annual membership, Instacart Express members, who can save an average of $7 per order, get free delivery on orders over $35 per retailer.

Instacart has partnered with more than 700 retailers in more than 5,500 cities in North America. Instacart’s platform is available to more than 85% of U.S. households and 90% of Canadian households.

The latest partnership between Publix and Instacart comes as year over year online grocery sales dropped from their peak during the COVID-19 lockdown during 2020.

"Conventional grocers reported a 6.8% drop in online grocery sales on a same-store basis during the 12 weeks ending September 28, 2021, versus the prior year," according to the Brick Meets Click eGrocery Performance Benchmarking 2021 Wave.

Publix Super Markets operates 1,284 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia. The grocer has nine distribution centers in Boynton Beach, Deerfield Beach, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Miami, Orlando and Sarasota; Lawrenceville, Georgia; and McCalla, Alabama.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Publix ready-made meals now available for delivery on Instacart app