Instacart Review

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So I decided to try instacart. Not because I wanted to do it for a review. Not because I am super busy and thought it would make my life a bit easier. Nope. I did it because frankly I was too lazy to go to the grocery store myself and, well there’s an app for that. I actually heard about instacart via a podcast that I love called how I built this. 

I really do love this podcast from the good folks over at NPR. It’s hosted by a guy named Guy Raz and he interviews people who have started their own companies that are essentially household names. He talks to them about how and why they started the company and what drives them and so on. Great show. Check it out.

Anyway, back to instacart and my experience. Going into it I did see and hear some mixed reviews. Some people loved it, some hated it but they loved and hated it for different reasons.  One day I decided to go on and try it out. I have to say that the idea of someone else doing the shopping for me sounded quite appealing. I mean, I have others doing most of the things for me nowadays. I use Lyft so I don’t have to drive, I use a meal prep company that preps and makes the majority of my meals and I use a laundry service to launder the majority of my clothes. Can I do these things myself? Yes. Do I pay someone else to do them so I don’t have to? Yes. Honestly it’s not even about the time factor. I just don’t want to do it and they are willing to do it for me. Instacart is just another service that I can add to the list.

I have tried them twice now and I am pleased with the results. The first time I used them I was really happy with the service. I had a shipper named Carrie and she was really helpful. She would send me a message if an item that I wanted was on sale with another brand to see if I wanted to swap them out and just all around helpful. If something on my list was no longer available or on sale she contacted me to see if I wanted a replacement or refund. If I wanted a replacement she even gave me suggestions and recommendationson the replacements.  The process was a pretty smooth one for the first time.

The second time I used it I still had a good experience. He wasn’t as friendly as Carrie was during the shopping process. If something was out of stock he just got the most equivalent product to it. If it wasn’t on sale anymore,oh well. I ran into this issue because I would put something in my instacart shopping cart from Publix, they are big for their buy 1 get 1 free sales, but by the time they actually go to purchase the item the sale may be over. While Carrie would text me to see if I still wanted to buy 2 even though the sale was over, the second guy just bought two of them at full price. But that’s not really a big deal as I will now check the prices before I checkout with the app. 

All in all I think that the experience that I had with instacart is positive. I will definitely use them again as it saved me time and the headache of grocery shopping. It also saved me some money. If you buy $35 or more there is a $5.99 delivery charge. Anything below $35 is $9.99 delivery charge. You can also sign up for instacart express for $14.99 per month or $99 per year and that includes free delivery. For now I’m sticking with the $5.99 option.  This saves me money because Everytime I go to the store I can’t stick to my list because I end up meandering around the store and I will inevitably pick up some things that are not on my list. This way by setting the list and checking out via the app/site, I won’t see a bag of chips or something else that I would waste money getting. I am able to stick to what I need and that’s it. I recommend giving it a try. Instacart.com