Convenience store delivery service goPuff expands with third Twin Cities warehouse

For anyone who's ever had a late-night craving but didn't want to leave the house, now there's an app for that.

Online retailer goPuff, which lets customers use an app to have thousands of products quickly delivered to their doors, launched its third Twin Cities warehouse in St. Paul's Merriam Park neighborhood this week.

Adding to its existing locations on St. Paul's West Side and Cedar-Riverside in Minneapolis, the Philadelphia-based company's new space is near Allianz Field and the Midway neighborhood.

Each goPuff warehouse, which can range from 3,500 to 6,000 square feet, stocks about 2,500 products, including snacks, beverages, electronics, over-the-counter medications, pet supplies and, in some cities, beer, wine and liquor.

Customers can use the goPuff app to place orders of $9 or more between noon and 4:30 a.m. For a flat delivery fee of $1.95, a driver will bring the order to a home or business.

"We really try to look for locations where there are digitally savvy customers," said goPuff spokeswoman Elizabeth Romaine. "The delivery zone is based on how quickly we can get an order into the customer's hands. Generally, we aim for under a 30-minute delivery time."

About 50 drivers work at each facility to meet customer demand. The company is not licensed to deliver alcoholic beverages in Minnesota.

The warehouse-to-customer delivery service, available in dozens of cities across the United States, started in Philadelphia in 2013 as an app for delivering snacks and school supplies to college students.

Founders Rafael Ilishayev and Yakir Gola have since expanded goPuff to more than 150 locations with a much broader selection of products.

"Since launching in Minneapolis in 2019, goPuff has delivered thousands of orders to customers in the city and today we're excited to expand our service," Gola said in an announcement Wednesday.

The company's busiest day of the week in Minneapolis is Sunday, Romaine said, while the most popular ordering time is 9 p.m. to midnight.

Holiday Stationstores manager Alexis Underwood said goPuff hasn't negatively affected business because most orders on the app are placed after her convenience store in Cedar-Riverside is closed.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, goPuff users in Minneapolis and St. Paul have an affinity for junk food, with Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Totino's Pizza Rolls, Gushers and Flamin' Hot Cheetos listed as the most popular items ordered in the Minneapolis area.

"We definitely get a lot of people who get home from work or school and realize they forgot something or maybe they had a craving," Romaine said.

Henry Erlandson • 612-673-4000