Last week, I tried something that I swore I would never need to do.  Something I thought I would never need.  I ordered groceries via a delivery service.

Colin and I had been out of town for a week for a last minute trip to visit family and see my sick grandpa, and when we arrived home, I glimpsed into my refrigerator to see one yogurt cup, a nearly empty container of almost expired milk, three apples, a half empty jar of salsa and a smattering of condiments. Yikes. Exhausted from travel, I didn’t have it in me to pull off a late night grocery run, and looking at our calendar, the next day was jam packed. Resolving to bumble through the next morning’s breakfast and lunch using freezer and pantry staples, I hopped onto my iPhone and started planning an alternate solution.

Enter Instacart.

Instacart is a relatively new service that currently offers grocery delivery in the Bay Area, Chicago, DC, Philly and Boston. Their business model is beautifully simple. They have actual human shoppers on the ground who go to your preferred grocery store and buy the items you put on your list. You choose a specific one-hour window for delivery, as early as one hour from the time you order. They charge a fee for delivery: $7.99 for orders less than $35, $3.99 for orders over $35. Your first delivery is FREE! They will deliver everything from produce, dairy, meat and canned goods, to cleaning supplies, diapers, dog food and alcohol (yes, please).

ADVERTISEMENT

The actual ordering process was much easier than I expected.  I am a creature of habit, and I have a rhythm to my shopping – I come to the store equipped with a list, separated by department, and have my path that I take every time I shop.  I was hoping that the process would be just as straight forward on the Instacart app as well. When I logged into the app, I quickly created a user name and password and selected my grocery store (in Chicago, our local options are Jewel Osco, Whole Foods, Costco and Mariano’s). From there, I  just followed my usual path, digitally. Their selections are separated by department, just like a store, or you can use the search bar at the top and just type and select your items.

The produce section not only had nearly every item offered in bulk, but they included most, if not all, of the packaged produce items we usually buy, from bagged lettuce to packages of mini-peppers. Some items are selected by weight (lbs. of onions vs. # of onions), so it is good to have an idea in advance of how many onions are in a pound. Luckily, if you are like me and are clueless about weights, every item has a section for notes, so if you are unsure, you can guess and write in: “two onions please!” Produce was what I was most worried about, since I am picky, but everything in my order came in great shape.

My other concern, aside from the quality of the produce, was about item availability. Often times, at the grocery store, I will have an idea of what I want, and there are instances where they are out of an item (like a preferred flavor of yogurt), or the item just doesn’t look good. Instacart has a great system, that is two fold. First, before check out, they identify any items that they expect could need substitutions, and you select your second choice or an alternate option (or chose “do not replace”). Second, they give your shopper your phone number, and they will text you with timing updates and CALL if they are in the store and have any questions regarding your list.

I got a phone call from my shopper confirming a couple of my substitutions, and offering a third alternative for one item that wasn’t in stock (a certain brand of chicken sausage). He was polite and knowledgeable, and I was impressed that he called to double check a few items with me.

My final concern with using a delivery service rather than shopping myself was price. This was the main reason that I haven’t been willing to try this in the past. Instacart’s FAQ section states, “Yes, Instacart prices are our own and vary from the store’s price. Our prices can be lower, the same, or higher than the store price.” I found this to be absolutely the case. There were many items – especially the “center of the store” sort of items – that were equal price to what I would typically pay, and some perhaps a bit less.

Where Instacart becomes tough for me to wrap my head around, is the price of their meats and some of the dairy and produce. Basically, they charge a tiny bit more than the full price of an item in these categories.  If you actually buy these items full-price, you wouldn’t see much of a difference, but if you are like me and shop according to sales, you will end up paying a little bit more.

I scheduled our delivery smack in the middle of Colin’s nap (12-1 pm), and at 12:25 p.m., my shopper called to tell me he was downstairs (I requested that he not buzz – our dog goes bonkers from the buzzer). I buzzed him in, and he carried everything all the way upstairs, placed everything inside my doorway and carefully handed me my eggs.  He had every item but one, which I knew wasn’t always in stock (and was refunded from my order). All and all, it was pretty darn fabulous.

Because of this, my recommendation is as follows: this service is awesome if you are using it to avoid the schlep to and fro when you need to stock up on heavy items, canned goods, and pantry staples. It is great when facing dire weather conditions (um, hello worst winter everrrrr), and you are hesitant to venture out on the roads. If you are like me, and are dealing with toddler battles in the grocery store, and lots of, “I want, I want, I want”, and struggling to lug it all up the steps while holding your toddler’s hand too, it can be great to use this service for the bulk of the items that are evenly priced with what you typically pay, so when you do shop, you can hustle in and out with only a small basket of sale proteins and produce. I still don’t think this will replace my regular weekly grocery trips, but in this situation, it was pretty much the greatest part of my day.

Instacart is expanding rapidly, adding new cities every few months. If you are in a large metro area, you can check out their website and sign up for an update when they are delivering in your area.

Have you used a grocery delivery service?  What did you think?