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Instacart and some of these other apps charge a LOT of money, so they go to pretty great lengths to hide the amount they are actually charging. Instacart is bei

Instacart and some of these other apps charge a LOT of money, so they go to pretty great lengths to hide the amount they are actually charging. Instacart is being especially clever by raising the price of the item then charging an additional service fee and delivery fee with, apparently, surge pricing. It also isn't clear how much of any of this goes to the actual person doing the work, so you still need to tip around 20%. For me, this isn't just about whether it is "worth it" to not have to shop for groceries, but also whether there is a much cheaper option available through either your grocery store or a non-Instacart personal shopper. It boggles my mind that people are paying this much for the privilege of being able to use an app rather than having to interact a bit more with an actual human being.

dasil003 10y ago
It's not just apps. Amazon is making it really easy to purchase on a whim via Echo or subscription to staple items. They even offer a 20% discount if you subscribe to a minimum number of items. However if you actually go and price this stuff out, it's often 30-50% cheaper at Walmart or Target. I get the convenience factor, but it really adds up when you're talking about daily necessities.
- CydeWeys 10y ago
  The Amazon pricing makes sense though, because Amazon is paying the cost of shipping it to your door rather than you paying the cost of time, money, and gasoline to go fetch it at a store and bring it back. Amazon's model is at least price-transparent.
  - jon2k17 10y ago
    Isn't that what Instacart is doing I.e bringing it to your door the same day, which I presume is much more costly?
    - grandalf 10y ago
      Yes. Not sure why people don't see this.
  - meesterdude 10y ago
    but shipping is an additional charge - YOU are paying to have it shipped to your door, not amazon.
    - dangrossman 10y ago
      There is no shipping charge for Amazon Subscribe & Save items (the subscriptions with discounts he referred to). You don't need a Prime membership either. https://www.amazon.com/Subscribe-Save/b?ie=UTF8&node=5856181011 https://www.amazon.com/Subscribe-Save/b?ie=UTF8&node=5856181...
  - dasil003 10y ago
    Well, to be fair, I think both models make perfect sense. But I don't think Amazon is necessarily more transparent. In case it wasn't clear, I was talking about list prices, not including shipping. In either case, you have to go seek out the on-premise retail prices, and in fact this is no different than traditional price comparison shopping whereby you learn that different stores have different loss leaders to get people in the door, and if you really want to get the cheapest price you have to shop a lot of different places. I'm not sure whether Amazon's model of centralized distribution with direct delivery has greater economies of scale then the big box store model, but I'm worried people are blinded by Amazon's convenience and don't realize how often the prices are really quite bad.
jon2k17 10y ago
From my experience, there are plenty of stores on instacart that are same price as store and they are transparent about it. Why not shop there? This seems like a store which they mark up.
- MegaButts 10y ago
  > there are plenty of stores on instacart that are same price as store and they are transparent about it What stores do they not mark up and how do you know that? What do you mean when you say they're transparent - that they tell you there's no markup?
enraged_camel 10y ago
Several of my friends have raved about Instacart recently, saying the convenience and time savings are well worth the meager delivery fees. Normally I'm not that into such services. However, I desperately needed groceries yesterday, but I was feeling sick and didn't want to get out of the house. So I decided to give it a try. I got on the site as a first-time user and entered my zip code. From a list of stores around the area, I pointed it to a grocery store in my neighborhood. Then I started searching for items. When I saw the prices on the Instacart list, I did a double-take. Turns out there is a margin, and it is at least 20%, if not much more. The reason I noticed this is because I shop at that store every week and am very familiar with the prices of the items I was browsing. Keep in mind I was browsing around 11 am, with a delivery window of 2-3pm, so it wasn't (or shouldn't have been) subject to surge pricing either. And like you say, the exact margin is hidden, and even the fact that they do have a margin isn't explicitly stated anywhere that I could see. So if I wasn't familiar with the prices at that specific store, I may have just gone with it. This lack of transparency (and in fact I can go one step further and claim it is purposeful obfuscation) immediately eliminated all my trust in Instacart. I closed the window without completing my order. I have since received three emails from them (in 24 hours) reminding me that I have an incomplete order. Suffice it to say, I have no intention of logging back in, ever.
- grandalf 10y ago
  > Turns out there is a margin, and it is at least 20%, if not much more. This is not true. In some stores Instacart offers the same as in-store prices, other it does not. The same is true of anything one buys on Amazon. Low-cost items that ship with Prime shipping are usually marked up a bit, but I order from Amazon (and Instacart) in spite of this because of the convenience offered. You can pick a basket of goods in Instacart where the percentage is high, but there are many other baskets where the percentage is low.
  - enraged_camel 10y ago
    Maybe it is based on store. I don't know - and that's the problem. Like I said, Instacart (as far as I could tell at a glance) doesn't make the information easily available. That's the problem. I did some casual searching and discovered that they supposedly have page (https://www.instacart.com/store/prices https://www.instacart.com/store/prices) where they list their markups per store, but it doesn't work for me.

dasil003 10y ago

It's not just apps. Amazon is making it really easy to purchase on a whim via Echo or subscription to staple items. They even offer a 20% discount if you subscribe to a minimum number of items. However if you actually go and price this stuff out, it's often 30-50% cheaper at Walmart or Target. I get the convenience factor, but it really adds up when you're talking about daily necessities.

CydeWeys 10y ago
The Amazon pricing makes sense though, because Amazon is paying the cost of shipping it to your door rather than you paying the cost of time, money, and gasoline to go fetch it at a store and bring it back. Amazon's model is at least price-transparent.
- jon2k17 10y ago
  Isn't that what Instacart is doing I.e bringing it to your door the same day, which I presume is much more costly?
  - grandalf 10y ago
    Yes. Not sure why people don't see this.
- meesterdude 10y ago
  but shipping is an additional charge - YOU are paying to have it shipped to your door, not amazon.
  - dangrossman 10y ago
    There is no shipping charge for Amazon Subscribe & Save items (the subscriptions with discounts he referred to). You don't need a Prime membership either. https://www.amazon.com/Subscribe-Save/b?ie=UTF8&node=5856181011 https://www.amazon.com/Subscribe-Save/b?ie=UTF8&node=5856181...
- dasil003 10y ago
  Well, to be fair, I think both models make perfect sense. But I don't think Amazon is necessarily more transparent. In case it wasn't clear, I was talking about list prices, not including shipping. In either case, you have to go seek out the on-premise retail prices, and in fact this is no different than traditional price comparison shopping whereby you learn that different stores have different loss leaders to get people in the door, and if you really want to get the cheapest price you have to shop a lot of different places. I'm not sure whether Amazon's model of centralized distribution with direct delivery has greater economies of scale then the big box store model, but I'm worried people are blinded by Amazon's convenience and don't realize how often the prices are really quite bad.

jon2k17 10y ago

From my experience, there are plenty of stores on instacart that are same price as store and they are transparent about it. Why not shop there? This seems like a store which they mark up.

MegaButts 10y ago
> there are plenty of stores on instacart that are same price as store and they are transparent about it What stores do they not mark up and how do you know that? What do you mean when you say they're transparent - that they tell you there's no markup?

enraged_camel 10y ago

Several of my friends have raved about Instacart recently, saying the convenience and time savings are well worth the meager delivery fees. Normally I'm not that into such services. However, I desperately needed groceries yesterday, but I was feeling sick and didn't want to get out of the house. So I decided to give it a try. I got on the site as a first-time user and entered my zip code. From a list of stores around the area, I pointed it to a grocery store in my neighborhood. Then I started searching for items. When I saw the prices on the Instacart list, I did a double-take. Turns out there is a margin, and it is at least 20%, if not much more. The reason I noticed this is because I shop at that store every week and am very familiar with the prices of the items I was browsing. Keep in mind I was browsing around 11 am, with a delivery window of 2-3pm, so it wasn't (or shouldn't have been) subject to surge pricing either. And like you say, the exact margin is hidden, and even the fact that they do have a margin isn't explicitly stated anywhere that I could see. So if I wasn't familiar with the prices at that specific store, I may have just gone with it. This lack of transparency (and in fact I can go one step further and claim it is purposeful obfuscation) immediately eliminated all my trust in Instacart. I closed the window without completing my order. I have since received three emails from them (in 24 hours) reminding me that I have an incomplete order. Suffice it to say, I have no intention of logging back in, ever.

grandalf 10y ago
> Turns out there is a margin, and it is at least 20%, if not much more. This is not true. In some stores Instacart offers the same as in-store prices, other it does not. The same is true of anything one buys on Amazon. Low-cost items that ship with Prime shipping are usually marked up a bit, but I order from Amazon (and Instacart) in spite of this because of the convenience offered. You can pick a basket of goods in Instacart where the percentage is high, but there are many other baskets where the percentage is low.
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  Maybe it is based on store. I don't know - and that's the problem. Like I said, Instacart (as far as I could tell at a glance) doesn't make the information easily available. That's the problem. I did some casual searching and discovered that they supposedly have page (https://www.instacart.com/store/prices https://www.instacart.com/store/prices) where they list their markups per store, but it doesn't work for me.