Just placed my first Instacart order

I use Instacart more in the winter than now. I have the premium subscription or maybe it is called express. If I order $35 or more there is no fee. I always include the tip in my order because I do not have cash at home. I like this service and expect to pay something for it. Some people here who have aides send their aides to shop for them so that is free. Medicaid pays the aides regardless of what work they have to do.
 

Jules said:
Is this a particular brand that says that it’s mercury free? All I could see when googling it was that it likely was lower but that there’s no guarantee because fish move around so much. Skipjack is much cheaper in all the stores here.
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I admit that Albacore is whiter, Chunkier, and more appealing. Skipjack is less appealing, and it may taste different. I had to adjust to it, probably mostly because of the looks. I use it in salad, so the looks don't matter. I haven't decided if it tastes as good.

Skipjack is not a brand name. It's a different type of Tuna. From what I read, Skipjacks simply don't absorb and store mercury the way Albacore and the others do. I've seen it advertised as "tested and mercury free." The only reason I can think of why they test it would be to make sure there aren't other types of tuna mixed in. The first time I tried it, I got it from Amazon but I didn't like it as well as Target's generic brand. But it may have been that I was not used to it. For me it's compromise. I'm not sure if it's a good as Albacore, but I eat a lot of it, and I'd be way over the cautionary limits of how much you can safely eat in a week if were eating Albacore.
 
terry123 said:
I order my ice cream from Walmart and they bring it in insulated bags. Always frozen. Best part is if they are out of the Walmart brand that I order they sub with a more expensive brand but at the Walmart price for their brand.
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Walmart will only mail groceries to me. I'm too far out of town for them to send stuff over from the store. For what it's worth, I like Walmart's generic brand of Cookies and Cream better than the other more expensive Cookies and Cream available around me. Might be the best I've ever eaten, but of course that's personal. It has bigger chunks of cookie and more of it, and I feel totally decadent when I'm indulging in it.
 
Remy said:
I'm glad this service is available because one never knows when it might be needed. It really started with the pandemic but I think it's going to stay around.

I'm glad your first order worked out for you Marie.
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Same here, curbside service and mailed, I will continue to use that service even when this pandemic is over.
 
Blessed said:
@MarciKS, That is one of the reasons I did not use instacart, also they mark up the cost of each product from the store. With walmart all I had to pay extra for was the delivery and the tip, If there was a problem with the order, walmart took care of it right away.
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I been doing some reading today and according to what I came across, Instacart doesn't mark up prices on stuff from partner stores. So our Dillons aka Kroger is a partner store. So that means they really did want $11.99 for 36 tablets of Pseudofed PE. I wasn't payin it. If I want the bulk for less I have to go into the store.
 
When I looked into Instacart, it wasn't workable for me. They wouldn't deliver to my location, and they didn't have curbside pickup, so I had to go in the store anyway. Also, the cost ended up being more. I think in a more densely populated area, it would work better. Stores in rural areas are not in a position to offer extra services, I guess. Or maybe there are other reasons. Or maybe it's just my area.
 
JustDave said:
When I looked into Instacart, it wasn't workable for me. They wouldn't deliver to my location, and they didn't have curbside pickup, so I had to go in the store anyway. Also, the cost ended up being more. I think in a more densely populated area, it would work better. Stores in rural areas are not in a position to offer extra services, I guess. Or maybe there are other reasons. Or maybe it's just my area.
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Smaller towns don't offer as much service.
 
We can get groceries delivered from a store I wouldn't patronize if the food were free, from Aldi, and from Walmart. I use Walmart because they have the best selection and because my sister gave me a Walmart + card for Christmas. So I tip, but I don't have to pay a delivery fee.

The only time I had a problem was when I ordered around 80 items and only 3 were delivered. Customer Service handled it immediately. I was very impressed.

But if you live 9-11 miles from my town, no delivery of groceries..
 
WheatenLover said:
We can get groceries delivered from a store I wouldn't patronize if the food were free, from Aldi, and from Walmart. I use Walmart because they have the best selection and because my sister gave me a Walmart + card for Christmas. So I tip, but I don't have to pay a delivery fee.

The only time I had a problem was when I ordered around 80 items and only 3 were delivered. Customer Service handled it immediately. I was very impressed.

But if you live 9-11 miles from my town, no delivery of groceries..
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I tried to tip a Walmart carryout person, but she said she was not allowed to take tips. No problem. I had a couple orders that were bungled a bit. Both were taken care of quickly and easily.
 
terry123 said:
I order my ice cream from Walmart and they bring it in insulated bags. Always frozen. Best part is if they are out of the Walmart brand that I order they sub with a more expensive brand but at the Walmart price for their brand.
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Good that you share. I didn't know.
 
JustDave said:
I use Walmart for curbside pickup. Often things are not in stock, so they will deliver them by mail for no extra cost if your total order including curbside is over $35, and this got me thinking. Walmart, Target, and some other retailers are happy to send groceries through the mail, and as long as you don't include meat or ice cream, it is really great. I use both Target and Walmart, and the stuff ends up right at my door, and they are as fast as Amazon. I can't believe it. I live out in the country and some items are only available at stores way out of my nearest town. Skipjack Tuna, the mercury free tuna, is only available at Target which is 50 miles away. It's actually hard to find the stuff around here, so I order from them every three weeks or so. I'm limited to 10 cans per order, so I have to add a jar of peanut butter to get the total up to $35.
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Yes, the Walmart orders come fast here too.
 
Well, I placed another order last night, to be delivered today. To finish up what I needed to get. I guess my first few orders by a certain date are free delivery, so I will be taking advantage of that. But, to be honest, I think I am good for a while with today's order. Again, all on SNAP, so I just had to pay a tip to delivery person.
 
I balance out my instacart shopping with trips to the store. Just to get out. Now that I am permanatly having to use my walker, the delivery is just easier for me. Though, last week I had my cousin over for lunch. Brought him out with me to do a store trip. I did ask if he wanted me to buy him something as a thank you. He decided on an 8 pack of his favorite soda. He is a good guy...he helped me alot when I was clearing out my house for the move....he was eyeballing a small cabinet I had in the kitchen...had microwave on to. I had decided not to bring it, so he asked if he could have it. beat putting it out by the road
 
MarciKS said:
I haven't noticed any price mark up on the products. It doesn't really matter to me because if I can't go out into the 100 degree humid weather and fetch groceries then I just won't because of my lungs. I will look at a couple things Wednesday when I go in to grab a few items they didn't have at the delivery store and see. And Walmart doesn't mark up delivery prices on store items? Also with Walmart delivery is it same day and does it all come at once or do you have issues with it not being in store and having to have something shipped from somewhere else?
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I use Walmart for grocery delivery. I set the site to only tell me about products they have in stock -- and it's not everything. I find that often items that have to be shipped are sold by someone who marks up the price. The other day, that happened with the dog food my dog likes. It was $85!! A third party seller. So I also select the vendor to be WM, no one else.

We found the dog food at WM, even though it wasn't available for delivery, thank heavens.
 
I've used Walmart delivery for over a year now. I suscribed to their yearly delivery cost - making delivery much cheaper since I order a little over a week each time and pay no fee for each delivery. We're a household of 4 so the grocery order is fairly large. The tip runs around $15. I started because of the pandemic. Due to my age and my COPD, I did not want to go to the grocery store and be possibly exposed to someone with Covid 19 - the original and the subsequent mutations. The groceries are left at the front door so there is no contact with the delivery person. My daughter - who lives with me also, did for a while , but does go to the grocery store during low customer times. Now she does both depending on the Covid rate around here.
 
There was a woman who I kept seeing studiously analyze every product she was picking up. I even told my husband how odd it was that she was there every day. (How‘s that for the pot calling the kettle black? Obviously, I was there every day too. ;)) When she was confused about a product and I gave her the answer, I finally realized she was a shopper. Not instacart, because we don’t have that. She was really organized and meticulous about everything she was buying.
 
Raddragn said:
I've used Walmart delivery for over a year now. I suscribed to their yearly delivery cost - making delivery much cheaper since I order a little over a week each time and pay no fee for each delivery. We're a household of 4 so the grocery order is fairly large. The tip runs around $15. I started because of the pandemic. Due to my age and my COPD, I did not want to go to the grocery store and be possibly exposed to someone with Covid 19 - the original and the subsequent mutations. The groceries are left at the front door so there is no contact with the delivery person. My daughter - who lives with me also, did for a while , but does go to the grocery store during low customer times. Now she does both depending on the Covid rate around here.
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that's why i order online and then do my curbside pickup. i also have copd.
 
MarciKS said:
Marie I hope it works well for you. I do click list most of the time because I can order online from Dillons and they shop in store and then I go pick it up. My only issue with the instacart shoppers is this for example from yesterday: I had a loaf of bread on the list. It was the generic but I would've taken whatever as long as I had bread. Since they can't find an equivalent they say the bread is out of stock but there's other brands of bread but because they are more expensive they sometimes don't have enough sense to just grab another loaf. I just want bread. I don't care what brand. I can't make toast with no bread. I don't know if it's just common sense on the part of the shopper or if they have rules to go by. But some bread is better than no bread. Some of the instacart shoppers aren't very bright either so, I only use them when it's too hot to go out. Then whatever they don't bring I run to the another location and pick up those few little things another day. Is the walker permanent or just part of your rehab?
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The bread thing happened a lot when i used the pickup service. The online menu doesn't always match what is on the store's shelf. So. you can be ordering goods that aren't there. And even, if you opt for "substitutions" a lot of what you wanted doesn't get put in the bag.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
The bread thing happened a lot when i used the pickup service. The online menu doesn't always match what is on the store's shelf. So. you can be ordering goods that aren't there. And even, if you opt for "substitutions" a lot of what you wanted doesn't get put in the bag.
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I have been using insta-cart for a while now ..... [2-3 years] ? It is not as good as it once was. I have experienced what you mentioned ..... very frustrating !!
 
The last time I ordered from them the system messed up the tip and I ended up tipping twice what I'd planned.
I had the same problem the only time I ordered groceries from Walmart.
 

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