I will share the pros and cons of using Instacart grocery delivery service from my own experience of using Instacart for more than one year. So that you can decide if it is right for you.
I am the kind of person who enjoys grocery shopping. Choosing perfectly ripe and fresh fruits and veggies can be the highlight of my day.
Stocking up on items that I regularly buy when they are on sale is a source of joy and happiness because I know that I can use the money I save on groceries on something else.
However, with the pandemic, family members sick, and the kids at home all the time, grocery shopping was increasingly difficult.
So I started to look for grocery delivery options.
From the alternatives available in my area, Instacart seemed to have the most store options and reasonable prices.
I will start by answering the questions I had when considering the pros and cons of Instacart.
How much does Instacart Charge for Delivery?
Instacart Delivery Fee is $3.99 on orders over $35.
The Charge for delivery can be different if you are:
- requesting one-hour delivery
- spending less than $35
- buying from club stores.
You will see the delivery fee before checking out.
In addition, you will also have to pay for the Service Fee and Tip for the shopper.
What are the Fees for Instacart?
There are three different charges involved in every Instacart order.
Here is a screenshot of one of my receipts so that you get an idea of how much you will have to pay in addition to your groceries.
There is a Delivery Fee of $3.99 when you buy at least $35 in groceries.
The minimum Tip for the shopper is 5% of the total amount of your groceries (174.96 x 5% = 8.75).
There is a Service Fee, which could be 5% or more of the total amount of your groceries.
It is difficult to find out in advance how much you will have to pay in fees and tip because it will depend on how much you spend.
You may choose to give a higher tip to the shopper but the minimum tip is 5% of the groceries you buy.
As a basic rule, the more you spend, the higher the Tip and the Service Fee will be. On the other hand, the Delivery Fee is always the same if your order is $35 or more.
If you spent $174.96 in groceries, using Instacart will add $21.49 (Delivery Fee, Tip, and Service Fee).
So you will end up paying $200.04 for getting your groceries at your door step.
Do Groceries Cost More with Instacart?
Stores usually have weekly items on sale. You may receive the flyers in your mailbox with stores advertising the special offers of the week.
Some stores will offer the same prices on Instacart and in the store.
However, it can get tricky when you order one day and ask for the delivery on a different day, when the sale may be over.
Most stores have an Instacart price, which is slightly higher, than what you would pay in the store.
While you shop online with the Instacart app, you see the price of the item and that is the price you will pay regardless of the sales that the store may offer for in-person shopping.
I compared the price on the weekly flyers with what is offered on Instacart and most stores do not apply those sales to orders on Instacart.
Is Instacart Express Worth the Fee?
At this time, Instacart express costs $99 per year or $9.99 per month.
It eliminates the Delivery Fee of $3.99 on orders above $35. It also reduces the Service Fee.
Acording to their website, Instacart Express members save around $7 per order compared with nonmembers.
Below you can see the difference between Instacart and Instacart Express.
Let’s take a look at how many orders you will have to make per year for Instacart Express to be worthwhile.
If you pay $99 : $3.99 = 25 if you make more than 25 purchases in one year you will save money with Instacart Express.
There are around 48 weeks in a year, if you are planning to use Instacart for more than 6 months and buy once a week, you will save money using Instacart Express.
Here is one of my receipts with Instacart Express:
Pros and Cons of Using Instacart
Deciding about the pros and cons of Instacart will depend on your specific circumstances.
Let’s start with the Benefits.
Pros of Using Instacart
Extra Time
If you have a lot of things going on in your life, having your groceries delivered can be a big time saver. Once you have used Instacart a few times, it will take less than 5 minutes to order your groceries online.
Compare 5 minutes with getting to the store, finding your groceries, waiting in line to pay, and driving home.
Healthier Food Options
When grocery shopping in person, I always had the intention of only buying healthy food but I would make exceptions for chips, cookies, or ice cream. I would tell myself that a little bit of junk food was OK.
It would take a lot of willpower to resist buying my favorite unhealthy food when they were on sale or after seeing them over and over in different isles.
However, when using Instacart, I only have to make the effort to purchase healthy food choices once a week.
I make a list of everything I need and stick to that list. There aren’t any items on sale, so there is no need to buy things because they are on sale, I just buy what I need.
The surprising effect is that after a few weeks, I don’t even miss the chips, cookies, or ice cream.
We replaced ice cream with frozen fruit and we bake our own cookies.
Instacart makes it easier to focus on healthy eating habits because you have to deal with less temptations.
Convenience
There are many different stores to chose from. You can select the time and date that you want to receive the groceries.
Cons of Using Instacart
More Expensive
If you are on a mission to save money, Instacart is not a good option because you have to pay not only delivery fees but also the tip for the shopper and a service fee. In addition, items are usually a bit more expensive on the Instacart App.
Every store is different. For example, Sprouts will let you take advantage of the in-store sale prices but Food for Less or Ralphs will not.
How much more money am I spending on groceries using Instacart?
I am spending about the same amount of money but I am buying less stuff. I do not buy chips, cookies, ice cream, and other tempting and unhealthy food options.
On average I would spend $20 per week on unhealthy food. Now, that money goes to the tip, service fee, and delivery fee.
Service Varies
Some shoppers are very thoughtful. They will send you pictures of the available items when a product that you ordered is not available.
Other shoppers will directly refund the item or choose a replacement without letting you know. So, you may end up happily or angrily surprised depending on what you get.
You can chat with your shopper if you need to make any changes or if the store does not have the product that you requested.
I hope that these pros and cons will help you decide if grocery delivery using Instacart is the right option for you.
If you decide to give Instacart a try, use this (affiliate link) INSTACART. You will not only get your first order delivered for free, which will save you $3.99 but you will also get a $10 discount on your order.
Let me know what you think about Instacart or using grocery delivery services. How do you get your groceries?
Related Posts:
How to be Happy Eating Healthy Food
Food That Lifts Your Mood and Makes Your Happy
Building Self-Confidence Will Make You Happier and More Successful
Wow, I didn’t know it was so inexpensive to use Instacart! I’m not sure they do it around where I live, though!
Multiple tries and several operators later, I finally solved the problem. I received a $100 instacart gift card as a gift. I then tried to credit the gift card number to my account. The number on the gift card said it was invalid. I called the Instacart operator who repeated the number and after several minutes, she said it should now work. Again I tried the same number but I saw the message that the number on the gift card had been redeemed. I called again and was told the credit was in my account. I then found that on 5/27/2024 a gift card had been redeemed by the Instacart operator to another old account that had an expired credit card, an old yahoo email address that I don’t have access to, and there is no activity on this account. I did not even know there was another account. I tried to transfer the correct credit to my account because of their mistake but they said they could not and since I could no longer access the Yahoo email, then I can’t access this account. Another words, I’m out of luck.
I finally found an Instacart operator that would look at my old link account and help me place an order. She said I had 2 old grocery list, 1 from Aldi for $106 minus the $100 credit leaving a balance of $6 and another 1 from Costco for $86 with a $100 credit which was free. So I said I would like the Aldi grocery list. She then said my balance with Visa was invalid and I told her because it has expired and gave her my active one. She said she could not accept it over the phone but had to open my account to add it which I could not access. I then said use my Costco list which was free and I did not have to use my expired Visa. She placed the order and said it would be delivered on 5/28/2024 between 11AM and 12 PM. I had no idea what was on the list that I had made long ago but considering the problems I had faced, something was better than nothing.
I waited for the delivery, but the time came and went. I called Instacart and was told my order had been canceled and my link account was deactivated but my primary account was fine. I don’t have idea why. I was then told I would have to complete a form that could be sent to my Yahoo account to reactivate the account.. I told them I could not access the Yahoo email and they said there is nothing they can do. It doesn’t matter what I do, they only place obstacles in my way.
Again I called a different operator and was told my account was deactivated but they would send me the form within 24 H and I verified my charter.net email. I could be wrong but I don’t trust it to be sent but I could be wrong.
It has been 24 H since the Instacart operator, Mallela Vannuru, promise to email me the reactivation forms. I didn’t count on her honoring her promise, but I’m a little surprised because she seemed so willing to help.
After another exchange with another Instacart specialist, I have waited 48 H just special Instacart agent, Korrapadu, asked and nothing. He empathized with my problem and said he would immediately email the forms to my charter.net address. I was instructed to open up my input and spam folder but there was nothing. OK then, he then said my linked account would be reactivated within 48 H and a specialized team would email the solution to my problem. That never happened.
I worked as a General Manager for Hilton Hotels and problems occasionally occurred, especially when my employee made the mistake, but I tried to minimize a bad guest’s experience and resolve the problem, that was my purpose. This seems my problem is being passed around and no one is willing to step up and solve my problem.
I have been fooled again. It is obvious that Instacart operators and special agents are only told what to say by the management but was never given nor taught the power to solve any problems, Unfortunately, it is a disservice to guest as well as employees, that is how they learn problem solving skills not parroting words of management. It should be called a complaint line not a help line. I guess I will have to plea my case to Sam’s Club and my credit card company.
After thinking on it for a while, I have finally learned principles and fair play does not compare to a companies profitability when policy is concerned. I should have carefully listened when numerously operators and agents said “i would like to help but unable to” while other operators stay on script and repeat what they were taught to say. I hope it was an honest mistake but I have to say, why in the world would someone redeem a gift card to an account that was no longer active, that never had any activity on it, and to an account whose email was probably inactive anyway. When the mistake was made, it would be easy to transfer the credit to correct account, it happens all the time, but because of the profitability policy, that could never happen. Why was the Costco grocery list the operator had paid for was mysteriously canceled and the account deactivated. It is because of profitability. Finally, why were there 3 operators never able to email the reactivation forms to my charter.net email. Once again it is a profitability policy. The idea of grocery delivery was a good one, especially for the elderly unable to drive, but Instacart has a lot of financial issues and I have been reading a lot of horror stories reviews. They have a tendency to lower their principles for profitability which is never a good thing but doesn’t everyone. I have now accepted the idea that the gift card problem will never be resolved and I will never buy anything from Instacart again. I understand looking at the big picture, it’s not very important, but it was important to me and is just the symptom of a bigger problem.
I love instacart. I save money not going into the store myself since my shopper sticks to my list. My biggest con is that when I get a shopper who picks produce that is not in the best shape.
I once received a broken egg and a squashed tomato or avocado but overall the shoppers do a good job.
I would love a service like this.
Hey Norma,
Instacart sounds amazing particularly with the COVID-19 pandemic.
I love the idea.
Sadly, I don’t think it is available here in England 🙁
Maybe the in the future 🙂
But thanks for sharing.
Best,
Pedro
Thanks for sharing these tips! This sounds really convenient!
I have never used instacart before! I need to check it out seems great!
In my area we don’t have the option of deliver – we’re a smidge outside the radius. However, we use Instacart so that we can just have someone bring our groceries out to the car and have been doing that for several months and really like it. It’s nice to be able to shop from home and not have to risk our health going into a store.
Instacart is very handy. We use to use it often when we lived in the city. Now that we are in the suburbs Instacart doesn’t deliver here yet. Kind of annoying….
I generally loved my experience with Instacart. I’m a single working mom with 2 hands and feel like I can’t do another thing (lol). I actually made more effort to get back to shopping for myself once the pandemic hit. Everybody is delivering now and I was wondering if people perceive safety/health concerns with food handling. What are your thoughts?
Instacart prevents me from giving a business my money. So mad I could spit. 0 stars from me a 74 year old man with no vehicle.
Do they initially charge more for authorization purposes?