4 ms·

I'm really in the same boat. Grocery delivery is a bit less insane (tip + fee = ~13% premium) because your average order size is bigger (at least for me - I usu

I'm really in the same boat. Grocery delivery is a bit less insane (tip + fee = ~13% premium) because your average order size is bigger (at least for me - I usually do 200ish bucks every 1.5-2.0 weeks). I can stomach a 13% premium for delivery when I have 2-under-2 (years old) and I really don't want any of us to get covid for a variety of reasons (I can't afford (emotionally more than financially) to be down a caretaker and partner right now, can't afford (emotionally) to have either an infant or a toddler to have covid, etc etc). Doordash is really hard for me to justify, I only use it when given gift cards etc. It can literally double the price of a meal (a $20 mcdonalds order becomes $35-40). Even during covid I still generally do curbside because that feels like a very minimal risk. Post-covid, I'll probably use instacart/shipt maybe once or twice a year - I'm 100% sure there will be times where for whatever reason I just can't get out and the world will end if we run out of milk for the kids. But when there's not a pandemic on, taking the kids to the grocery store knocks out so many birds with one stone: * kids get to get used to the grocery store experience * we get groceries * my wife gets a break

depingus 6y ago
You might want to go back and re-calculate. Pre-covid, I did a comparison between in-store, Instacart, and Shipt. I did my normal groceries in store, then took the receipt and re-created it in Instacart and Shipt. It wasn't just the delivery fee + tip. Shipt and Instacart both increased the prices of each individual item; sometimes by a lot. IIRC the total was about 12% more BEFORE taxes, fees and tips. On a $150 shop, it was considerable. This was a while ago and things may have changed, but its worth looking into. You don't even need an in-store receipt; just download your store's weekly flyer and compare those prices with Shipt's and Instacart's. Also noteworthy: Shipt didn't respect any of my store's B1G1 offers. It didn't even appear in their system while shopping (Instacart did). I actually know a Shipt shopper that was getting free stuff all the time because of this. If you're strapped for time but still want to stay safe and save money, consider stores that have curb side service like Wal-Mart. You get in store prices with no extra fees and no-contact hand off.
- ghaff 6y ago
  The one period I used grocery delivery quite a while back (I was on crutches and I could easily enough go to a grocery store but it was hard to do a full shopping) my big objection was that they'd be out of enough things or did substitutions I didn't want that it was hard to count on getting everything I needed to make a recipe. This was before meal kits so those weren't available as a substitute. Not sure about prices but I didn't really have a choice.
- cashewchoo 6y ago
  Hmm I haven't done anything rigorous but a few staples I know the price of off-hand are the same at least, but maybe they're being sneaky. I'll look more closely. Thanks for the tip! FWIW though I do mainly use instacart, since my amex card counts them as a grocery store/supermarket, I get my 6% cashback.

depingus 6y ago

You might want to go back and re-calculate. Pre-covid, I did a comparison between in-store, Instacart, and Shipt. I did my normal groceries in store, then took the receipt and re-created it in Instacart and Shipt. It wasn't just the delivery fee + tip. Shipt and Instacart both increased the prices of each individual item; sometimes by a lot. IIRC the total was about 12% more BEFORE taxes, fees and tips. On a $150 shop, it was considerable. This was a while ago and things may have changed, but its worth looking into. You don't even need an in-store receipt; just download your store's weekly flyer and compare those prices with Shipt's and Instacart's. Also noteworthy: Shipt didn't respect any of my store's B1G1 offers. It didn't even appear in their system while shopping (Instacart did). I actually know a Shipt shopper that was getting free stuff all the time because of this. If you're strapped for time but still want to stay safe and save money, consider stores that have curb side service like Wal-Mart. You get in store prices with no extra fees and no-contact hand off.

ghaff 6y ago
The one period I used grocery delivery quite a while back (I was on crutches and I could easily enough go to a grocery store but it was hard to do a full shopping) my big objection was that they'd be out of enough things or did substitutions I didn't want that it was hard to count on getting everything I needed to make a recipe. This was before meal kits so those weren't available as a substitute. Not sure about prices but I didn't really have a choice.
cashewchoo 6y ago
Hmm I haven't done anything rigorous but a few staples I know the price of off-hand are the same at least, but maybe they're being sneaky. I'll look more closely. Thanks for the tip! FWIW though I do mainly use instacart, since my amex card counts them as a grocery store/supermarket, I get my 6% cashback.