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Unless Instacart deeply integrates with each stores inventory, they will ultimately lose. The biggest problem with Instacart vs Amazon Fresh is that with Insta

Unless Instacart deeply integrates with each stores inventory, they will ultimately lose. The biggest problem with Instacart vs Amazon Fresh is that with Instacart you never really know what you are going to get. You never know what your end bill is going to be, and you never know what the real markup is. I don't think I've ever place an order on Instacart and had it filled 100% with everything I wanted. Place a large enough order and 10+ items might be missing. Miss the call to try and find a subsititue? Too bad. The end user experience for Instacart is actually pretty damn bad. It's often just "better than nothing", but I don't see how that's sustainable.

grandalf 10y ago
Instacart would benefit from keeping inventory data synced more accurately, but ultimately Instacart offers a solution in the form of the shopper making a reasonable decision. Instacart used to prompt the buyer to approve all substitutions, but it got tiresome pretty quickly. Now you can still do that, but the default experience lets the shopper make the (usually obvious) choice. Grocers do not always have everything in stock, and so I think Instacart's solution is the best I've seen so far. If you are someone who wants to know the exact total in advance, then request no substitutions, it's very simple.
- themagician 10y ago
  It's not simple, nor does "no substitutions" solve the problem. The Amazon Fresh model is far superior. If the item is out of stock, it shows out of stock. People will put up with Instacart until there is better solution—any really—because Instacart's solution is terrible.
  - grandalf 10y ago
    > The Amazon Fresh model is far superior. If the item is out of stock, it shows out of stock. How is this better? Most supermarket items are sold alongside many competing items that are nearly identical. As a customer, I may or may not have a strong brand preference. In my case I have a brand preference for only about 10% of the items I buy. For the rest I'm largely indifferent. Also, in the vast majority of cases, the store brand is an adequate substitute. So I would argue that by actually applying intelligence to the problem, Instacart's approach is better. Showing out of stock puts the burden on the user to solve the problem of which alternative to choose.

grandalf 10y ago

Instacart would benefit from keeping inventory data synced more accurately, but ultimately Instacart offers a solution in the form of the shopper making a reasonable decision. Instacart used to prompt the buyer to approve all substitutions, but it got tiresome pretty quickly. Now you can still do that, but the default experience lets the shopper make the (usually obvious) choice. Grocers do not always have everything in stock, and so I think Instacart's solution is the best I've seen so far. If you are someone who wants to know the exact total in advance, then request no substitutions, it's very simple.

themagician 10y ago
It's not simple, nor does "no substitutions" solve the problem. The Amazon Fresh model is far superior. If the item is out of stock, it shows out of stock. People will put up with Instacart until there is better solution—any really—because Instacart's solution is terrible.
- grandalf 10y ago
  > The Amazon Fresh model is far superior. If the item is out of stock, it shows out of stock. How is this better? Most supermarket items are sold alongside many competing items that are nearly identical. As a customer, I may or may not have a strong brand preference. In my case I have a brand preference for only about 10% of the items I buy. For the rest I'm largely indifferent. Also, in the vast majority of cases, the store brand is an adequate substitute. So I would argue that by actually applying intelligence to the problem, Instacart's approach is better. Showing out of stock puts the burden on the user to solve the problem of which alternative to choose.