Is Instacart Grocery Delivery Worth It: My Instacart Review
I first learned of the Instacart grocery delivery service when my oldest daughter moved to a new city. It was her first job after college, and I wanted her to have a fully stocked refrigerator and pantry. Because I was placing an order from afar with Wegmans, the only way I could get everything delivered was to sign up with Instacart grocery delivery.
These days I only use grocery pickup and delivery. And when I get my groceries delivered, itโs always through Instacart. Seems Iโm not alone.
According to Supermarket News, last month 73.5ย million Americans placed a supermarket order online. This is a 24 percent increase from the month before.
Is Instacart Grocery Delivery Worth It: My Instacart Review
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Even as stores start to open back up, Iโll likely continue to use Instacart grocery delivery service. Why? Well, for starters Instacart, in my area, works with a local mom-and-pop grocery store. So Iโm legit supporting a local business.
Next, hereโs another reason Iโll continue to use Instacartโand it has a local angle, too. By using Instacart grocery delivery, Iโm employing someone locally, too. I know times are tough and many people are finding become an Instacart Shopper to be a good option for bringing in extra cash.
I always tip 20% when I place my Instacart order. Itโs the same rate I would be tipping a service person in a restaurantโif I were going out to eat these days (Iโm not). You can add the tip right in the app.
Do you like the idea of supporting a local business? You may be able to, too, by using Instacart grocery delivery.
I just read in Supermarket News that Instacart has partnered with an organization that represents more than 3,000 independent supermarket retailers nationwide. By doing so, Instacart can online shopping options to stores that might not otherwise be able to afford a delivery service.
How does Instacart grocery delivery work
To use Instacart grocery delivery, youโll need to set up a my Instacart account. To do this you can download the Instacart app (Android or IOS for iPhone) or you can use the Instacart website.
Once you get there, youโll need to enter your zip code. Thatโs to see if youโre in one of the Instacart locations. Not everyone is.
When I first moved to Western Pennsylvania, Instacart wasnโt an option for me. But now when I log into my Instacart account, I see three shopping options for online grocery orders and home delivery. They are shopping at Rite Aid using Instacart, Aldi and my aforementioned locally owned grocery store, which has just one location.
Using the Instacart app and interface
What makes shopping easy is the fact that Instacart remembers what you ordered from your last trip. So if you know you buy the same things every week, you can just click on โRe-order.โ Instacart will bring up everything from your last shopping trip and add it to your cart.
If anything from your last orderโor which you want to add this time aroundโis sold out, you wonโt be able to add it. The item will appear โgreyed outโ within Instacart.
Finally, when you add a โpopularโ item to your cart, Instacart will prompt you for a replacementโjust in case the items goes out of stock. You have three options with these replacements.
- Accept the replacement the Instacart AI chooses for you.
- Choose your own replacement option
- Tell Instacart not to replace the items
Once you checkout, youโll have the option to set the tip for your Instacart shopper. It defaults to 5%. In my opinion, thatโs too low. Like I said, I make the tip 20%, which is what I would be giving to a restaurant server if I were dining out.ย
Adding to your Instacart order
In fact, one of the nice things about using the Instacart grocery delivery app is that you can continue to add items to your order after youโve checked out. You can continue to add items until the Instacart Shopping โpicks upโ your order and starts shopping it.
Iโve found that the shoppers tend to get your order about two hours in advance of the delivery window youโve selected. So as long as you keep this timing in mind, you can continue to add items until minutes before the shopping begins.
If you have notifications turned onโand I suggest you doโInstacart will let you know when your shopper has started your order. At that time you cannot make any more changes.
Walmart working with Instacart now
If you live in the following four regions, youโre in luck: you can get your groceries from Walmart delivered through Instacart:
- San Francisco / Bay Area, CA
- Los Angeles/ Orange County, CA
- San Diego, CA
- Tulsa, OK
Hereโs my review of Walmart Grocery Pickup.
Instacart Express now Instacart+
Note: in June 2022 Instacart introduced a new version of Instacart Express. Called Instacart+ itโs an Instacart membership with extensive benefits. This includes:
- Free deliveries on orders of $35 or more.
- 5% back on certain pickup orders
- Reduced service fees
Instacart grocery delivery review: the drawbacks
One of my frustrations with Instacart is that, unlike other grocery shopping apps, youโll choose your delivery time after youโve filled your cart. I know that sometimes shoppers will find that theyโve made an order. Then they go to checkout and a delivery time thatโs convenient for them isnโt available. I wish Instacart would let you pick your delivery time before you start shopping.
Hereโs an Instacart hack to workaround the fact that you canโt choose delivery time until after youโre done shopping. Because I have an Instacart Express Membership, I just need to get $35 worth of groceries in my cart to checkout and qualify for free delivery.
So Iโll add just $35 worth so I can checkout and choose my time. Then Iโll go back into the app and continue adding everything I want in that shopping trip.
Another Instacart drawback has to do with out of stock items. There is no way to know if an item that you wanted to buy is actually back in stock by the time your Instacart shopper starts shopping. If it was โgreyed outโ when you placed your order, there is no way to ask to Instacart to notify you when the item comes back in stock.
Communicating with your Instacart shopper
Another nice feature of Instacart is you can follow (virtually) your Instacart shopper as they shop your order. You can see what theyโve added to the cart.
If they have to make any adjustmentsโsays your bananas weighed less than you expectedโyou can see that, too, in the form of an instant โrefund.โ And, if they find something is out of stock and have questions, theyโll ask.
Normally, I pre-select my replacement options. This makes the shopping trip easier for the shopper. But sometimes, even with replacement options, the person canโt find what Iโve requested.
For example, one time I had ordered a lot of organic produce. The shopper messaged me, โThey seem to be entirely out of organic produce today. Do you want regular instead?โ Another time, the bread I wanted was out of stock. So the shopper messaged me to find out what I wanted to do.
This was great. Because rather than just not buying me any bread, that person gave me an option. Now, granted not all Instacart shoppers are as engaging or communicative.
With my last order, I didnโt hear anything from the shopper at all. Not even when I messaged to say, โHi. Iโve got the Instacart app open as you shop, in case you have any questions.โ Not even a โthank youโ or โOk.โ
I do wish that you could request certain Instacart Shoppers in the future. Most recently my shopper named Casey was fast, responsive and great with substitutions. I would have requested Casey again in a heartbeat, but thatโs not how Instacart is set up.
Why signing up for Instacart Express makes sense
I decided off the bat that signing up for Instacart Express made sense. That meant I was paying $9.99 a month for membership. What did membership get me? Lower Instacart fees and free delivery as long as I order $35+ worth of items.
However, I recently transitioned to an annual membership to save money. It cost me $72 or $6 a month. With just two deliveries in a month, it justifies the membership, since I would have been paying $3.99 for delivery without it. Since Iโve been getting an Instacart delivery once a week, it makes so much sense.
Note: every Instacart membership includes a service fee. There is no way around it. On my orders, it usually comes out to between $2 and $3. I donโt love it but then again I donโt love going to the supermarket these days. So for my time and sanity, Iโll pay that service fee.
What is the service fee?
The Instacart service fee is applied to all delivery orders. If youโre not an express member, itโs 5% of your total. If you are an express member, like I am, the fee is as low at 1.9%. The fee is, basically, how Instacart makes money.
FYI, if you choose to do Instacart pickup, you will not be charged the service fee.
Instacart pickup
So, how does Instacart pickup work? Well, according to Instacart, any order that qualifies for Instacart delivery service will also qualify for Instacart pickup. The caveat? The store where youโre shopping needs to offer this pickup option.
Youโll know this when you log in, add items to your cart and then go to check out. It is when youโre checking out that youโll have the option to choose delivery or pickup. My local grocery store does not offer this option. However, if yours does, this is how Instacart explains it will work:
โ When your order is ready for pickup, youโll get a text or app push notification on your phone, along with pickup instructions.
When you get to the store, follow the instructions to let us know youโve arrived.
Depending on the store, youโll either pick up your order inside or wait while we bring your order out to your car.โ
Where Instacart pickup is available
Being able to pick up your Instacart orders is a fairly new option for shoppers. From what I can tell it launched recently after a successful pilot program.
As far as I can tell, the following stores are offering Instacart Pickup:
- Aldi
- Cub Foods
- Food Lion
- Price Chopper
- Publix
- Schnucks
- Smart & Final
- Sprouts
- Tops Friendly Markets
- Wegmans
The company says Instacart Pickup is available at hundreds of stores locations in 25 major metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Nashville, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
Stores offering Instacart grocery delivery service
Other supermarkets are using Instacart for grocery delivery. Here are the ones that you can use Instacart grocery delivery service, as I can currently determine.
Please note: In some markets these grocery stores use Instacart. In other markets, these same stores might use Shipt or Postmates for their grocery delivery services.
- Acme Markets
- Aldi
- Bi-Lo
- BJs Wholesale Club
- Costco
- Cub
- Dillons
- Earth Fare
- Fairway
- Food Lion
- Foodtown
- Fred Meyer
- Harris Teeters
- Jewel Osco
- King Soopers
- Kroger
- Lowes Foods
- Pick n Save
- Price Rite Marketplace
- Publix
- Raleyโs
- Ralphโs
- Safeway
- Samโs Club
- Schnucks
- ShopRite
- Stater Bros
- Stew Leonards
- Strack & Van Til
- Target
- Vons
- Wegmans
- Weis Markets
If youโre aware of other supermarket chains that let you use Instacart to shop with them from home, please post a comment to let me know. Iโll research it and update this post as necessary.
Non-grocery stores that offer Instacart grocery delivery
Instacart continues to add more stores where you can shop with them and not just for groceries. For example, you can use Instacart to get anything from Rite Aid deliveredโexcept for prescriptions.
Recently, Supermarket News wrote that Instacart had partnered with Big Lots stores to offer delivery service. This service is available in 47 states and nearly 1,500 store locations.
According to that article, you can use Instacart for same-day delivery of the following kinds of items from Big Lots:
- groceries
- household essentials
- beauty and personal care products
- pet supplies
- home decor
- office supplies
- toys
- arts and crafts products
Speaking of pet supplies, Instacart is one of the services that Petco uses for same-day delivery. Petco also uses Shipt. Iโm guessing which service depends on where you live.
Finally, you can use Instacart to shop at Winco. Winco is a food service supplier.
Save money on future Instacart orders
Want to know the best way to save money on future Instacart grocery delivery orders? Share your promo code link with friends and family.
When youโre in the Instacart app or on the website, youโll see a prompt that says this:
โEarn $50 in Free Groceries.
Send friends $10. Get $10 yourself. Itโs a win-win.โ
So by sharing your Instacart promo code link up to five times, you can earn up to $50 off a future Instacart order. I need to double-check when this $50 off resets. Is it every month? Every year? As I have not, personally, referred anyone yet, Iโll let you know what I find out.
Instacart works with EBT SNAP customers
Did you know that if you use EBT SNAP you can also use Instacart? This convenience rolled out in 2022.
In fact, Iโve included Instacart as an option in this article about buying groceries online using SNAP EBT.
Instacart expands beyond grocery delivery
These days you can use Instacart to get more than just groceries delivered. According to Supermarket News, shoppers at non-grocery stores, like Michaels and Best Buy, can also use Instacart for deliveries.ย
In fact, here are some of the other retailers that have partnered with Instacart:
- Dickโs Sporting Goods
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- Sephora
- 7-Eleven
- Big Lots
- Staples
- Vitamin Shoppe
- Costco
- Petco
- CVS Pharmacy
- Rite Aid
When you launch the Instacart app, youโll be able to see which of these non-grocery stores in your area are working with Instacart. In fact, when updating this post, I checked the Instacart app on my phone to see if I have new stores available to me. And I do.
If youโll see the image below, youโll notice that many of the retailers Iโd mentioned, above, are now available to me for delivery through the Instacart app. If you havenโt signed up for Instacart by now, whatโs keeping you?
Overall thoughts on Instacart grocery delivery
By using Instacart grocery delivery service, Iโm able to support two local businesses, if you will. That would be the mom-and-pop, independent supermarket that uses Instacart. And the Instacart Shopper who may be working for Instacart as a way to make ends meet. We tip wellโ20%โbecause we are blessed to be able to do it.
And unless something significant happens in my life, Iโll continue to use Instacart for my grocery delivery. Now if I could just get my local Costco to expand their โzoneโ to include my town so I could shop at Costco from home, too.
In my opinion, Instacart is terrible. They mark up the store prices for delivery customers! Why? And they also charge a “Service Fee”. And their “customer service” is nonexistent.
I switched to Walmart. Much better! No mark-up of prices, store employees do the shopping, so your tip goes just to the Door Dash driver, no “Service Fee”, and Customer Service is open 24/7 with a rep answering the phone almost immediately.
I’VE BEEN USING INSTA CART FOR
SEVERAL MONTHS AND HAVE
NOTHING TO SAY EXCEPT GOOD
THINGS ABOUT THEM. EXCELLENT
SERVICE AND PHONE ASSISTANCE
WHEN I NEED IT. SHOPPERS ARE
VERY FRIENDLY AND EFFICIENT.
Yeah, I understand about tipping and paying a service fee, but a delivery, service and tip, PLUS a markup on the actual items I buy? That was just too much for my blood. To me charging more for the same items than when shpp8ny in the store should be illegal.. Feels like price gouging, especially in a pandemic, when ordering delivery is the safest option for everyone. Due to this, I won’t ever be using any delivery service again. They all do this, from instacart, Ubereats, etc. Its total robbery, and isn’t really talked about.
Instacart stinks literally. I used Peapod for years in other states, no problem whats so ever. Then moved to Philadelphia and just recently this is after they turned to Giant, whoa, I found out that Instacart would deliver my groceries. Half of my groceries were missing. Then they never came because wonderful Instacart couldn’t find a driver???
I decided to order straight from Instacart, twice from Wegman. Both times there was NO driver to pick up my groceries, app said delivery would be 4 hours late.
They have no available drivers in Philadelphia with no one to talk to who knows anything. I’ve had to cancel 2 deliveries with Wegman via Instacart because NO driver and it was getting late. I canceled the orders 3 times, with Giant and then with Instacart.
I canceled my “no grocery order” and called them last night to deactivate my account. Spoke to someone overseas who said she would. They have no US customer service. Not done today. After 4 phone calls to their nasty customer service overseas they said they deactivated my account, but could’t send me a confirmation email. I made Giant deactivate my account, will never use them again. After Peapod they went downhill badly. No food available, no reliable service with Giant
S0mething about your blog and you raving about Instacart makes me believe that they are giving you money to advertise them. I may be wrong, but if you look at reviews on BBB and consumer reports, they are the absolute worst service .
I’m so sorry that this was your experience. Giant has its own delivery options now so I would recommend ordering directly from the store. Here is a link to sign up: https://www.leahingram.com/giantdirect I used to live in the Philly suburbs so just tried my zip code to make sure this is available and it was in Bucks County where I used to live. Hopefully it works for you.
Trying to find information about the actual grocery prices you are charged when using Instacart. Are you paying shelf price or are the items marked up? There’s a new Schnucks opening soon in my town that will offer pickup only but I’m finding no helpful information at all on either Instacart or Schnucks websites. I’m only familiar with Shipt where the individual stores determined whether or not to mark-up their prices. For example Meijer charged on average 8% extra per order but Target was zero. That can get very expensive after adding up all the fees, service charges, pickup/delivery charge, product mark-up and tip. Most likely I’ll end up sticking with Walmart curbside pickup. Even though their produce sucks, their service is completely free.
In my experience I paid the store price when using Instacart. I would get a receipt with my order so I could check. But as far as grocery pickup, I’ve never been upcharged for that at the store. There might be a pickup service fee, but you’d pay that for delivery, too. I hope that helps a little bit.
Instacart was great until I started discovering missing items and most recently, an entire order! I informed them and asked for a refund, they not only denied me, but deactivated by account! Instacrap even said they wont be reactivating it. Say what?! The photo the shopper took wasn’t even of MY house! No apology, refund, nada. They simply dont care! Guess they expected me to eat the loss. I’ve reported it to my bank. You’re better off shopping yourself, or if unable, maybe ask a friend or relative.
I’m so sorry that this happened to you. Thanks for letting us know.
Leah
Instacart ripped me off! I ordered groceries from Kroger that were delivered by Instacart. The bill seemed high, but they said they had no receipt. I looked online at my receipt and almost $60 of extra food was on the receipt! This was food I did not order, nor did I receive this extra food. I called Instacart 3x and spoke to people who said a supervisor would call me back, but nobody from Instacart ever did. I went down to my store and the store manager refunded me the money. I will NEVER use Instacart again because of how they wouldnโt help me.
That’s terrible and I am sorry that happened with you. In the future, I find that using Twitter to resolve customer service issue is effective. Here is Instacart’s Twitter, in case you want to tweet them.
Youโll pay more than the warehouse price for Costco, so beware!