Not too long ago, I was an Instacart fanatic. I would use it as a way to shop while I was at work, getting groceries delivered right to my door as needed. It was a breeze. I did the whole online shopping thing for ages, and then one day, I just dropped the service like a hot potato.
It wasn’t because I didn’t like the convenience of ordering food at the drop of a hat. In fact, I loved the way I could get my groceries delivered to me for a small fee. It made it easier for me to be a homebody.
Trust me, I loved that experience. However, there was a certain point where I started to notice that Instacart was a little off…
The Pricing Debacle
It all started when I had to rush to my local Shoprite to get some eggs. At this point, I was using Instacart for most (if not all) of my shopping trips. I had grabbed a carton of eggs, then looked at the price tag. $1.99.
Almost immediately, I looked at the price I was paying on Instacart. It was $4.99 there. I started comparing everything in-store, and realized that some of them had a 40 percent markup or higher via the app. At that point, I felt like a fool. I’d basically been flushing money down the drain with the app.
Is Instacart A Scam?
Instacart isn’t a scam, per se. After a large blowback, the company began to make statements saying that many of the items on the service have been marked up as a way to “recoup costs of operations.”
Sure, that would be great, if the fees also didn’t bite off a huge portion of my wallet, too. When I tallied things up, I started to realize that most of the problems that I had with Instacart was that it was just too pricey for what I was getting.
With that said, I felt pretty cheated when the “sale prices” on Insta were still fairly pricey compared to what was going on in-store. I mean, it defeats the whole point of a sale, doesn’t it?
Why It Doesn’t Make Sense To Use Instacart
If there’s one thing I love, it’s convenience. I love having things sent right to my door, but the truth is, Instacart is really only good for a select handful of people. If you’re exceptionally pressed for time (to the point that self-care is optional), paying a premium price for delivery could make sense.
As for me, I couldn’t actually find myself able to agree with the idea of paying so much for my groceries. The convenience, while awesome, just wasn’t worth it. If you’re tight on money, trust me, it’s just cheaper to Uber there.
