I Finally Tried Instacart Grocery Delivery In The Twin Ports

I was hesitant to try a grocery delivery store, but my sister-in-laws both encouraged me to give it a shot. There reasons were that it's a huge time saver, doesn't cost much more, and they get a 10 dollar credit if they refer me. I downloaded the app, and within a few days I finally made my order.

So the way Instacart works is it verifies your address and that they deliver to you. Then you pick one of the local grocery stores near you that works with Instacart. For me the options were ALDI, Cub, CVS Pharmacy, Petco, and Whole Foods Co-op. I went with ALDI because that's where I do a lot of my bargain shopping.

Next was selecting the groceries you want. I found out pretty quickly it's easier to use the search bar and type what you are looking for instead of browsing through the categories. For me to select approximately 20 items it took about 5-10 minutes. Not bad, and partly because I was trying to decide what I needed. If I had my own list together it would have been smoother.

Next you enter your payment information, etc. There is a $3.99 delivery fee, and they auto include your tip amount. You can change that, but why bother? Overall it was like 7 bucks in service fees.

For that little amount of money it had me wondering how this company makes any money. Then I read the fine print. The prices of your food are also inflated to help cover the cost of business. Some may look at that as an evil thing to do, but of course they have to do that to make a profit. I pay attention to prices a lot, and from what I can tell the inflation is very minimal, like only a few cents here and there.

You can pick your delivery window in hour increments, with the option as soon as possible available. I set a window for when I knew I would be home. I got an e-mail from Instacart about an hour before my delivery time telling me that the delivery would be delayed up to a half an hour. I appreciate the heads up, but it was still an inconvenience as I needed to leave the house. I did check a box that said you can leave it if I'm not there and accompanied delivery instructions to leave the groceries in the front porch.

Sure enough, I got a phone call from an 866 number that turned out to be Instacart. They called me to let me know they couldn't get anyone to answer the door. I explained my note that I left in the app and they didn't see that, or that I had checked to leave the groceries there. Fortunately I got the call and they did leave the items there, but it was a little frustrating that the miscommunication and delay happened. It all worked out and I'll give them another shot. It was a minor hiccup in the whole process.

All of my items arrived. The produce the employee picked was fresh. There were no mistakes that I could see. One thing to mention is that some of the items may be low in stock so they have you select a replacement option if it may not be available. In this case, two of my items were my second choice.

Overall, it was a good experience and something I will definitely do again. When I have down time or a break at work, I can order groceries and have them right at my door. The future is here, folks.