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Welp, grocery shopping in real life is about to get even worse. Instacart to the rescue.

ryanmccullagh 8y ago
I see Instacart people in the store all the time. However, I wouldn't use them. I like to pick my own vegetables, and meat. It's definitely not all the same (meat, vegetables, fruits), and having someone just throw whatever they can grab into a cart in the fastest way possible isn't something I'm interested in.
- vallesmarineris 8y ago
  Is that what it looks like in the store? That's not how it feels at home. Shoppers frequently label items as 'of low quality' to alert me that the bell pepper selection or whatever isn't great. Also, despite my 30+ years on this Earth, I vastly more trust a 'professional' shopper to pick out good veggies than I do myself. I respect that you're different, but I can say with 100% certainty that the produce picked out by my instacart shoppers is excellent and better than I could do. Never a single complaint there, at least from me. Do they really rush? From my side, they seem to take their sweet time. They text frequently, asking questions, suggesting replacements not shown in the app, etc. The whole process feels slow and relaxed. I don't eat meat so I don't know about that. But I would assume the same as veggies. Instacart does a top-top job picking quality ingredients for me. Definitely better than I would know how to do myself. Who is more likely to know the freshest spinach? Not me, that's for sure. An instacart shopper who is there all day? Much more likely to get good results. I do have issues with instacart, but none of the concerns you've mentioned have in any way harmed me. My main issue is that the delivery times seem to be not communicated to the driver. So it will tell you 10am - 11am, but the driver will show up at 9:50 and not know that they are early. Sometimes also, the selection available on the website will be mislabelled in category (tomatoes in bath care, or something). Otherwise it has been really incredible for me, overall.
  - maxerickson 8y ago
    If you can't pick good produce yourself, why do you put any stock in your evaluation of the produce they pick for you? Seems those things would be based on the same skill.
- paulie_a 8y ago
  Instacart has always been excellent in my experience, they have alerted me of better deals, recommendations for different equivalent products. I've managed to get power drill delivered to my doorstep in about an hour. And for meat/produce, the shoppers seem to have a good eye for quality. Amazon go falls flat in comparison.
  - xfitm3 8y ago
    Instacart started strong, but I've experienced a significant decline over the past 18 months. They lost my business.
pbreit 8y ago
How so?
garry 8y ago
Hi, lead investor in this round here. Instacart is actually also an Initialized portfolio company and I funded Apoorva while I was a partner at Y Combinator. We think these technologies are both very complementary — either way, retailers need options to fight against Amazon. They can't hire world-class engineers but Instacart and Standard Cognition sure can.
- vallesmarineris 8y ago
  Fantastic response, thanks Garry!

I see Instacart people in the store all the time. However, I wouldn't use them. I like to pick my own vegetables, and meat. It's definitely not all the same (meat, vegetables, fruits), and having someone just throw whatever they can grab into a cart in the fastest way possible isn't something I'm interested in.

vallesmarineris 8y ago
Is that what it looks like in the store? That's not how it feels at home. Shoppers frequently label items as 'of low quality' to alert me that the bell pepper selection or whatever isn't great. Also, despite my 30+ years on this Earth, I vastly more trust a 'professional' shopper to pick out good veggies than I do myself. I respect that you're different, but I can say with 100% certainty that the produce picked out by my instacart shoppers is excellent and better than I could do. Never a single complaint there, at least from me. Do they really rush? From my side, they seem to take their sweet time. They text frequently, asking questions, suggesting replacements not shown in the app, etc. The whole process feels slow and relaxed. I don't eat meat so I don't know about that. But I would assume the same as veggies. Instacart does a top-top job picking quality ingredients for me. Definitely better than I would know how to do myself. Who is more likely to know the freshest spinach? Not me, that's for sure. An instacart shopper who is there all day? Much more likely to get good results. I do have issues with instacart, but none of the concerns you've mentioned have in any way harmed me. My main issue is that the delivery times seem to be not communicated to the driver. So it will tell you 10am - 11am, but the driver will show up at 9:50 and not know that they are early. Sometimes also, the selection available on the website will be mislabelled in category (tomatoes in bath care, or something). Otherwise it has been really incredible for me, overall.
- maxerickson 8y ago
  If you can't pick good produce yourself, why do you put any stock in your evaluation of the produce they pick for you? Seems those things would be based on the same skill.
paulie_a 8y ago
Instacart has always been excellent in my experience, they have alerted me of better deals, recommendations for different equivalent products. I've managed to get power drill delivered to my doorstep in about an hour. And for meat/produce, the shoppers seem to have a good eye for quality. Amazon go falls flat in comparison.
- xfitm3 8y ago
  Instacart started strong, but I've experienced a significant decline over the past 18 months. They lost my business.

pbreit 8y ago

How so?

garry 8y ago

Hi, lead investor in this round here. Instacart is actually also an Initialized portfolio company and I funded Apoorva while I was a partner at Y Combinator. We think these technologies are both very complementary — either way, retailers need options to fight against Amazon. They can't hire world-class engineers but Instacart and Standard Cognition sure can.

vallesmarineris 8y ago
Fantastic response, thanks Garry!