Google Maps expands the grocery pickup feature to 2,000 stores in the US

The holiday season is knocking on our door, and normally during this time of the year, people buy gifts and shop around more than usual. Google knows this, and in order to help people with their holiday shopping, the company is bringing some updates to its Maps service.

Pickup with Google Maps is now out of its pilot phase and available in over 2,000 stores in more than 30 states across the U.S from the Kroger Family - including Kroger, Fry's, Ralphs, and Marianos. This feature was tested in limited regions, and now rolling out throughout the US.

With Pickups, you can track your orders directly from Google Maps, share your time of arrival with the store so they can get your package ready for pickup in time, and track the status of your order. Google says that people who use pickup with Maps "typically wait less than five minutes for their groceries."

Google is also launching something called Area Busyness - a feature that provides information on how crowded a certain neighborhood is. This feature works similarly to the busyness graphs you see when you search for a restaurant or other popular place on Google. This time around though, Google will show the busyness information on a much larger scale. This functionality is already rolling out to iOS and Android.