2y ago

An Instacart customer said she discovered the app's higher prices cost her nearly $100 after accidentally seeing the store's paper receipt

www.businessinsider.com

An Instacart customer said she discovered the app's higher prices cost her nearly $100 after accidentally seeing the store's paper receipt::undefined

39 comments

- I think her issue isn't that she's paying more via fees and tips. It's that the store is charging her more for every individual item. One would expect to pay the shopper and delivery person for their effort. But realizing that the store is capturing most of that AND charging you more for every item on top of it seems to be the problem. The shopper, delivery person and the buyer are all getting shafted.
  
  We've got a grocery store here in Canada launching a 'groceries Prime' subscription of $100 a year. As part of the marketing push they say you'll "pay in store prices, no hidden fees" on pick up orders, beat in mind they use their own staff for this, no outside shoppers or third parties involved. The implication I take from the ad being when I use their online grocery order app they are already charging me different prices, and hidden fees.
  Here is the ad from my inbox.
  
  Just to clarify, the majority of those markups are actually imposed by Instacart and not "the store" for what it's worth.
- But it's not an employee, and they're not getting the $100. It's an independent contractor gig worker getting a fraction of that and the rest is going to a vampire.
  
  "General Contractor" doesn't mean someone that does random tasks on their own, that's a "handyman".
  General contractors usually just hire people to do the work and then pocket most of the money...
- Just a heads up, General Contractor is a term for someone who oversees contract construction projects, e.g., remodeling your kitchen. They're licensed and insured (usually) professionals.
Is this not a thing that is already known by every customer of these services? Seems naive for people to suddenly have a TIL moment over this. During covid lockdowns (my first and only experience with InstaCart), I was aware of this pricing scheme on my very first order.
Instacart is not the first nor last service to be doing this. People still using DoorDash better go start comparing the cost of the food items they are ordering from restaurants. And if you run out of gas in your car and call AAA to bring you some, newsflash: you aren't paying the local pump prices for those gallons of gas.
- If this is expected and everything is peachy, then why does Instacart say to not give the receipt to the customer? You don't see this as something to hide?
  
  Because, even though you know it's happening, you'll be shocked by how much.
  
  I didn't say it was expected or peachy...just that it was known.
  I think it's perfectly acceptable to dislike the practice, and even acceptable to be vocal about how shitty it is. I was just pointing out how weird it is to be surprised about it - because I thought everyone already knew what they were doing.
- I used DoorDash for a year with their membership. The pricing is criminal without one. Even with a membership and various discounts, it's still high. My main issue with DD though, is the stores that get to set higher prices for DD. "Prices on this menu are set directly by the Merchant". Crumbl does this, for example. Stores should not be enjoying a markup at all. Oh, and they don't reliably tag Virtual Kitchens either.
I'm waiting for the day all these shitty delivery services come crashing down. But sadly I think there's enough idiots out there to keep them in buisness.
That said these practices aren't unique. Almost any place where you buy X + a service will charge a markup on the initial item + their service fee.
- any pay nothing to the person doing all the work. they just pocket the service fee.
- Am idiot, still use Instacart though because it saves me at least an hour a week (probably closer to two hours after accounting for shopping time and getting ready to leave) for $20, which is worth it to me
  
  That's life.
  I pay a person to clean my house every two weeks. Totally worth it.
- They were nice at the height of COVID but once the first vaccine came out and masks were required I saw no point in them. A $25 food order costs $50 and takes twice as long as take out with a bonus of the delivery person possibly molesting or stealing your food.
- I think they'll eventually just consolidate into one company. The demand for grocery delivery is there, so the service isn't going to disappear.
- There are still people out there who believe everybody should still stay home due to covid. These services aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
  
  Not going that route, but covid quarantine definitely showed me how much time I can save by having someone else do my grocery shopping for me.
  My grocery store has an annual membership of $100 which includes same day pick up and next day delivery (in a refrigerator truck), among other benefits. Grocery shopping is done on my couch in a fraction of the time. While handling 2 toddlers, that benefit is well worth it to our household
Saved you a click: customer paid $514 for $435 worth of groceries, not including fees and tip. $79 is "almost $100" and is about a 16% markup
- The issue is they're hiding it. If a business felt they were totally on the up-and-up, they wouldn't try so hard to hide it.
  I agree that undoing this would pretty much certainly mean they raise the actual rate they charge customers, but I feel that's a far better system. Even if that charge wasn't a flat charge and was like, 10% of the total or whatever the math currently works out to.
  Basically, if they need to charge more money, do it. Don't scam people into thinking groceries are more than they are. A disclaimer that prices have said 10% markup would do.
  
  Maybe it's regional, but Instacart use in my area straight up says which stores are priced the same or which are priced at a premium when you click on it. It isn't hidden at all.
Wait until she finds out about the Uber/Doordash higher prices.
- Same on GrubHub. Individual item markup of 1 or 2 dollars each, delivery fee, and 10% service fee (on the sum of order + delivery fee + taxes). So what would be 20 in store becomes something like 25 (food) + 1.50 taxes + 4 delivery fee + 3.05 service fee, then tipping on that 33.55 which brings what should have been 20-22 dollars as pickup (or 28 pickup through GrubHub) up to 38-40 dollars minimum. Damn near double
  
  If you want to see it easily, check the Chipotle app. They contract their delivery, so if you change menu from pick-up to delivery, you can see before your eyes how much it's marked up.
  My wife and I used to argue about getting Chipotle delivered when it's less than a mile from our house. I'll gladly go pick it up and save the $10-15
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Shoppers, the term Instacart gives to the gig workers that fulfill orders, are then prompted to slide a button on-screen to acknowledge the requirement.
One shopper in Oregon told Insider that the receipt policy prevents customers from seeing how much more they pay for items by ordering through Instacart.
TikTok user vane.ssota posted a video last month showing her paper receipt from an Instacart order from a Ralph's grocery store in California.
Another Instacart shopper in Virginia recalled a recent order where packs of soda were on sale at a grocery store.
In North Carolina, another Instacart shopper told Insider about a recent trip that involved buying an expensive bottle of wine.
The shoppers Insider spoke with said they don't get a cut of any service fees or item markups in their pay.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
- Good bot. ... Do we good bot here?
  
  Don’t let the culture drive you, you do you.
  
  "Good Bot" "Bad Bot" was done on Reddit because there was a "Bot Ranks" service watching for that feedback and aggregating results on the https://botranks.com website. That's one of the many services that are drifting into oblivion after the reddit API changes.
  I don't think there are any bot ranking services running on lemmy yet, but it's very technically possible and it wouldn't surprise me if one springs up.
You don't even need to order to see the difference if your local grocery store also delivers. I was curious one day and brought up my local grocery place in one tab, Instacart in the other, and realized I was spending a significant amount more on markups alone using Instacart, not even including delivery charge and tips.

39 comments