Never had your groceries delivered but ready to try? Here’s what you can expect.
So far, many of us have still been braving a few trips to the grocery store here and there, being careful but still mindful that we’re taking a big risk.
For others — particularly seniors and others in high risk categories — that’s not a good idea.
Just this weekend, White House coronavirus coordinator Deborah Birx said the next two weeks are going to be particularly brutal, advising: “This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy, but doing everything you can to keep your family and your friends safe.”
In other words, if you’ve never had your groceries delivered before, it might be time to give it a try.
With that in mind, I decided to test out grocery delivery and report on how well it works.
There are a few different options for the Raleigh area — InstaCart, Shipt, Amazon Prime (for Whole Foods) — but I went with InstaCart because it covers nearly every grocery store in the area: Food Lion, Lowes Foods, Wegmans, Publix, Aldi, Fresh Market, Costco and others. (Note: Harris Teeter uses Shipt, which also delivers for Target. Walmart offers grocery delivery but it uses a number of companies, excluding InstaCart, to make deliveries. Whichever service you choose, the process should be similar.)
I signed up with InstaCart and ordered my groceries Sunday night, The first available delivery time was Thursday morning. So we’ll update this story on Thursday to let you know if everything went smoothly (see update below).
In the meantime, here’s the process so you can get started.
Sign up for an InstaCart account
Go to instacart.com and it’ll ask you for your address or ZIP code to make sure delivery is available in your area. (Note: you can also do all of this on the InstaCart smartphone app.)
Next, it’ll ask you to sign in or create an account.
When you create an account, you have three options: sign up with email, sign in through your Facebook account, or sign in through your Google (gmail) account.
I chose to sign up through email. I used my email address and chose a password.
For some reason, after signing in the website kicked me to a New York ZIP code, so you might have to re-enter your ZIP code to make sure you’re in the right area.
I landed on the Wegmans page by default, but your results may vary. In the upper left corner of the screen is a button that says “Stores” — click that and you’ll see a full page of all the stores you can choose from.
I picked Food Lion because it’s very close by (and because my mom wanted a specific Easter ham that they sell).
Start shopping
The next option was to select either delivery or pickup. (Note: If you’re comfortable driving to the store to pick up the groceries, it’s pretty much the same process: you order online — either through InstaCart or directly from the store’s website — and drive to the store, and they bring the groceries out to your car.)
I chose delivery.
The next screen was the shopping screen, where I could either search for groceries in the search bar at the top of the screen, or browse by category.
I went straight for the Smithfield smoked ham shank that my mother requested. This is when I learned that with delivery, you may not have all of the options you would have if you were searching inside the store. They had a spiral ham, but that was a hard pass from mom. So we moved on.
When selecting items, I’d occasionally get a notice that stock was low so they’d prompt me to choose an “acceptable replacement.”
On items that are sold by pound, such as fresh produce or meat, you enter the amount you want and they get as close as they can to that, but there’s a notice that says “final price based on actual weight” — so you may get a little more or a little less.
And if you think of an item after you place your order and check out, you can go back in and add items as long as the shopper hasn’t already started your order. Just go back to InstaCart and sign in and click View Order. You’ll see an option to Add to Order, so click there.
What are the delivery fees?
If you buy at least $35 worth of groceries, there’s a $3.99 delivery fee; a dollar amount below that, it’s $7.99.
There is also at 5% service fee ($2 minimum), which is just an extra bonus for InstaCart (this is NOT a tip and does not go to your delivery person).
There’s an option to buy into a membership service called InstaCart Express, which costs $9.99 per month or $99 per year. That service waives delivery and reduced service fees on orders $35 and up. That would save you at least $4 per order, so depending on how often you think you might use it, that’s something to think about. This service also allows for getting items from different stores at no additional charge.
During checkout you will enter your delivery address and your payment method. The site will save this info so that you won’t have to add it every time.
And about the tip: please tip. At checkout, a $2 tip is automatically added, but you can increase it (or remove it). The site also says you can add more of a tip after the delivery is made.
When to expect delivery
Delivery estimates are all over the place. Generally speaking, do not wait until you need something to order it. Try to order several days in advance.
Occasionally we hear of people who lucked out and got same day delivery, but that’s rare, and likely due to someone else canceling an order.
When I placed my order it was around 11 p.m. on a Sunday. There were a few delivery slots open on Wednesday, but they were late at night, so I opted for Thursday morning.
If you’re a gambler, there’s a “fast and flexible” option that appears to grab you the earliest available slot, if one opens up.
The main thing here is to be patient as InstaCart and grocery stores try to adjust to the sudden and incredible increase in demand.
Research released by industry analysts last week showed a 233% increase in sales for online grocery delivery and pickup over a 30-day period, with data compiled from August 2019 to March 2020, and a nearly 200% increase in the number of orders placed. There was a 146% increase in the number of customers.
InstaCart will update you on delivery
If you entered a mobile phone number during checkout, InstaCart will text you with updates on the delivery, letting you know if there are changes to your delivery time and when your driver is getting close.
If you don’t have a smart phone, they will send updates via email, so monitor your email account.
No-contact delivery
Your InstaCart driver will place your groceries at your door and leave. There is no reason to have personal contact with the delivery person.
Bring your groceries inside and unpack them and immediately wash your hands.
At this time, experts say research shows there is no reason to wash your groceries, as long as you are washing your hands after handling them. (But you should wash fresh produce, same as always.)
You can also send groceries to others
If you want to order groceries to be delivered to someone else, you can do that through InstaCart as well.
You can specify a different account at the end of your shopping session, or go to the Account section and click on Addresses. Then click the + sign to add new addresses there.
Update: The groceries arrive
(Updated April 9, 2020):
My delivery was scheduled to arrive Thursday morning (April 9) between 9 and 11 a.m.
I got an alert at 10:02 a.m. saying that due to high demand, my order was running behind. Not completely unexpected.
But then just eight minutes later, at 10:10 a.m., I got a message that my shopper (Samantha) was shopping and needed to make two replacements. We needed to replace regular cauliflower with organic, and loose hothouse tomatoes with some bundled greenhouse tomatoes. All good. I clicked “approve” on the InstaCart app.
At 10:25 I got a message that my order was on the way, estimated delivery 10:35 a.m. A couple minutes later that changed to 10:40 a.m. The delivery arrived at 10:29 a.m.
Samantha left the items at my door, rang the bell, snapped a photo of the groceries at the door (which was sent to me) and headed back to work. I waved at her and she waved back. No contact.
I took the groceries inside and made sure everything was there. Everything was there. And the cost estimates for my per pound items were very close. (I wiped everything down out of an abundance of caution and put them away.)
My original total was $47.03 and then I went back in on Tuesday and added a bag of Ruffles, which brought me to $52.19. InstaCart had estimated my total at $55, so my bank account shows a pending charge of $55. A note from InstaCart at the bottom of my online receipt (you will not get a paper receipt with your groceries) said that the final charge to my account will be $52.19, and that will adjustment will be reflected within 7 days.
I heard from several readers after this story initially published, and they wanted to share their experiences. Some experiences were positive, and some were not.
In this case, I’d say it was a very positive experience. It is definitely a little more expensive, so if the extra money is a hardship, hopefully this can just be a temporary fix and we go back to normal later in the summer. If it’s something you think you’ll keep doing, I’d recommend the Express membership. If you pay for the whole year at once, it’s $8.25 per month and that saves you the delivery fee and at least part of the service fee (you still have to tip!).
And I would definitely recommend downloading the app if you have a smart phone, because it makes communication with your shopper much easier if they are running into problems at the store.
Good luck!
This story was originally published April 7, 2020 at 8:00 AM with the headline "Never had your groceries delivered but ready to try? Here’s what you can expect.."
