Delivery service Instacart, which has been described as having the potential to become the Amazon of groceries, is a service that basically offers to pick up your order from the store. You use their app or the web to select what you want from different stores—in Portland they are partnered with Whole Foods, Costco, Umajimaya, Natural Grocers and Green Zebra—select a delivery time from a choice of hour-long slots, charge your card, and sit back and wait.
Testing it with an order from Green Zebra it all worked pretty smoothly, and they text to let you know they are on their way—though in this case the personal shopper (what they call the delivery guy) turned up almost half an hour early; not necessarily a problem unless you picked a specific time for a reason. There’s a $10 order minimum (so no sending out just for a pack of rolling papers) and delivery is free for your first order, then it’s $3.99 for two hour delivery or $5.99 to receive the order within the hour (however, that’s when you spend over $35, otherwise it’s more).
So does this mean you won’t have to get out of bed to do your grocery shop? Well, not exactly. It’s not a full on grocery delivery service—the selection is limited (at Green Zebra, for example, there was only one type of yogurt flavor, no access to the cheese or fresh fish counter, and the only booze I could find on the whole site was some Asahi from Umajimaya), ingredients aren’t listed (though sometimes nutritional facts are) and no “best before” dates given. Also, because they only collect from stores, Instacart doesn’t have access to wholesale prices, so some things will cost more than the store price (see here for more on the labyrinth pricing structure).
I can’t imagine doing a whole grocery shop from it, and given the high delivery charges it’s not economical to buy a small order, though it could be a useful service if you are feeling especially tired, lazy, drunk, hungover or ill. Still, a recent round of funding just valued Instacart at $2 billion, so smarter people than me are betting on its future. Instacart.com, delivery available 9 am-midnight daily depending on store hours
MJ, there’s a chance those people aren’t smarter than you.