COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHO CARES HOW FAR AWAY YOU ARE FROM A DECENT GROCERY STORE? 
“I live downtown and use Instacart every week. Saves a ton of time. I don’t understand the fixation about going to a grocery store in person.” [Matt, commenting on Comment of the Day Runner-Up: The Hole in the Donut] Photo inside H-E-B, 1701 West Alabama St.: Candace Garcia
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I don’t understand the willingness to pay a 42.8% premium for someone else to shop for me
https://np.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/5xj47l/ever_what_instacart_is_really_charging_you_in/
I like to squeeze the melons my self.
I love instacart. The Service Fee is optional and easily waved. Additional tip, as always, is discretionary. I have not found that the in store prices are all 42.8% higher. Actually they sometimes have coupons I wouldn’t normally have had in store. One example that comes to mind (because I have kids) is Capri Sun flavored water pouches. They are $2.09 in store, sometimes on sale $1.88. Instacart has them for $2.29. The closest grocery to me is the Kroger/HEB complexes on Buffalo Spdwy at 59. I have on more than one occasion driven to HEB, spent 15 mins circling the lot and ended up leaving. Kroger’s parking is sometimes no better. Not to mention the hour it takes to find each item and another 15 minutes in line. I can have my shopping done on Instacart in less than 10 minutes and delivered to my home in an hour. Definitely worth the extra couple of dimes per item. Don’t forget the money I saved by not impulse buying a bunch of crap that isn’t on my list.
I lived in Paris for a while and the modus operandi was to hit up the local neighborhood farmers market in the morning to pick up your beurre blanc and what not. Always fresh. Still, today, I tend to do the same: every day I pedal over to (that) HEB, fill up my pannier and get home to find out that I already have 6 bunches of celery-less-a-stalk-or-two.
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What gets me the most, although, are the Instacart shoppers at (that) HEB: man, are they vicious! SO, I cannot understand shopping at (that) HEB BECAUSE OF INSTACART!
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Does Urban Harvest still do a weekly farmers market at City Hall? (…oh, look, and I just got a flyer in the mail from them)
Same people who still write checks
Re: I don’t understand the fixation about going to a grocery store in person
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Maybe shop at Central Market? It’s The Galleria of grocery shopping.
on a side note: I used Instacart in the day or two leading up to Harvey. Stocked up on water, batteries, candles and essentials in mere minutes without having to crawl all over throngs of other people or risk getting caught away from home in a downpour. Worth every cent of the tip I voluntarily paid for my shopper/driver.
I’m with el Duderino: it seems that people who use Instacart may have more money than sense. If one plans carefully, one can get a whole week’s worth (or more) of groceries in a weekly trip. No extra charge.
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Then, just fill in with a few fresh items during the week. But, hey, if you’ve got money to burn, knock yourself out. I avoid the crush of people by shopping early on Saturday morning (around 8 AM) – just treat it like a workday to get up at the usual time.
Wolf Brand Chili, I have three kids, including a 16 year old son. I buy milk two gallons at a time and still have to go to the grocery store every other day. I’d buy more milk, but it won’t fit in my fridge next to the two gallons of orange juice, two loaves of bread, etc.. Weekly shopping?? hahahaha…
I am wondering, how many people thinking I’m crazy to spend a few extra dimes on $2.00 spaghetti go out to eat during the week and spend $10 on the same spaghetti at a restaurant?
I go shopping on Friday or Saturday evenings.
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Shopping at any other time is madness.
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To the point though, why don’t more people use those delivery services? There’s two very good reasons.
1. Because they simply don’t want to pay someone else to do a task they are fully capable of doing themselves.
2. Because they are poor and can barely afford a bag of potato chips and soda, much less the required internet connection and computer to order their delivered meal, not to mention paying a tip for said extravagance.
I’m with Toasty. Once upon a time it was for Reason #2; I’m glad to say that once I got out of school it’s been for Reason #1. Well, that plus I finished school after the times when you could just call an order in to your neighborhood grocer but before people figured out how to get The Interwebs to do the same thing.
I was totally against wasting money on delivery services until I realized for some people it actually saves money. My partner handles most of the grocery shopping due to my work schedule. They’re the type of person that loves a sale so we would always wind up with random stuff on every grocery visit. With delivery services a list is made and only things on the list are ordered.
I have a philosophical objection to using delivery services unless there’s some physical or time constraint that requires it. I has to do with changes in our society: it used to be that even affluent people did their own manual labor. My dad was a physician, but if the lawnmower broke, he would fix it and go on cutting the grass. The same when the AC broke or even if the sewer line backed up. Nowadays, most people use hired help for everything … while often complaining about undocumented immigrants who actually do much of the work. I guess what actually bugs me is that our society is getting more and more separated into the “really haves” and the “really have-nots”.
“I have the money to use a delivery service, I don’t understand why everybody else doesn’t.”
If I find out my staff is using a delivery service instead of doing the shopping themselves someone is in for an extra harsh flogging.