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Instacart and others grocery delivery service offer convenience, but most, especially on-demand delivery services, are criticized for excessive fees, inflated prices when shopping in the app, or membership fees.
Good news for those of you who’ve never ordered groceries because of the pesky surcharges: Instacart just launched new initiatives to pass on much-needed savings to customers. The best of which is waiving the $8 delivery fee for people who schedule their deliveries at least 24 hours in advance.
If you’ve never tried Instacart before, now might be a good time to see if the service works for you on a regular or even occasional basis.
Read more: Instacart introduces AI tool to help you shop smarter
Save $8 on delivery by planning ahead
Schedule your delivery a day in advance and Instacart will now waive the $8 surcharge.
In addition to the slightly higher grocery prices you pay when shopping through Instacart, it’s the added fees on top of the product price that can make Instacart feel more like a luxury than a convenience. For some shoppers, this can be a barrier to shopping with Instacart.
To start, there’s a minimum delivery fee of $8 per order — more if you want it faster. A variable “service fee” is added to each order to support the Instacart platform, depending on your order and location, and a delivery person tip is calculated based on a percentage of the cost of the items you buy. (You can select the tip percentage, but this isn’t the place to save money by ignoring the fact that someone is delivering for you and getting a tip as part of their fee.)
Depending on the size of your order, these are the components that can make your typical Instacart grocery shop feel overly bloated. A $60 grocery shop can easily turn into $80 or more. In that example, if you can stomach the idea of paying someone $20 to shop for you, you can see the appeal.
Read more: Is Trader Joe’s Really Cheaper Than Other Grocery Stores? We Did the Calculation
So the biggest and most obvious savings with Instacart’s new initiative is the elimination of the $8 delivery fee, if you’re just willing to plan ahead. next day delivery within a three hour time frameIn many stores you can even place an order before going to bed, so that it will be delivered the next morning, after the store opens.
Typically, Instacart delivery is designed to happen the same day you place an order, usually within a few hours depending on the size of the order, for the regular $8 delivery fee. A “Priority” option adds a few extra dollars on top of that if you want it within an hour or so, and ensures that your shopper/driver drops off your order first. The fee drops to a modest $3 if you can choose a delivery slot later in the same day.
While $8 may feel like a drop in the bucket depending on how much you spend on grocery delivery, consider that the average Instacart order in 2023, according to statistics published by the brand, cost only $35.64. If you’re willing to think ahead a little, this equates to a savings of almost 20%.
Add your loyalty club memberships for extra savings
You can upgrade your loyalty card memberships through Instacart for additional savings and rewards.
With Instacart, you can now link your loyalty card from multiple retailers for extra savings. Major retailers like Albertsons, Cost priceFood Lion, Kroger and Wegmans are among those participating in the platform. Your loyalty card can be added when you click on the relevant store to start shopping, or at checkout by providing the email address, phone number or account number associated with your customer club membership.
Read more: Can you guess which zones in your refrigerator are the coldest (and warmest)?
The types of savings you’d see in-store for club members are also available to club members who shop through Instacart. Prices are still inflated for the Instacart service, but similar sales are offered to online shoppers nonetheless. For example, adding my Wegmans Shoppers Club membership prompted several sales to appear in the online store that are the types you’d see in-store: “Buy one, get one…” “spend $X on eligible items, save $X,” etc.
Additionally, your Instacart purchases also contribute to the loyalty rewards that your specific membership provides you. Stores like CVS that offer cash back to their members can add up if you’re not limited to earning those points while you’re only in the store.
Buy your personal digital flyer for savings
Instacart now lets you view digital flyers before placing an order.
When a Lidl opened in my neighborhood, I collected all the promotional flyers left in my apartment hallway that weren’t picked up by neighbors and scored about $100 in free groceries the following week. If you’re one of those shoppers, you’ll love Instacart’s new “Flyers” feature.
There’s an easier way to find discounted items at a specific store on Instacart, all in one place, or to find discounts regardless of whether you have a club membership. Grocery stores don’t just offer deals and discounts to their members. We’ve all received those aforementioned weekly flyers that you can find in your mailbox, on your doorstep, or in your physical shopping cart, detailing weekly in-store deals that are available to all shoppers.
Instacart now offers digital versions of these flyers, found in an icon called “Flers” on your app’s home screen, making it easier to find helpful savings. Stores you shop at often or that sell the products you typically buy will appear as available flyers, or you can search through all available flyers for something different.
Once you’ve selected a store, you can browse through different tabs for savings: “For You” is based on items you’ve purchased in the past (the app learns your preferences the more you use it), while “Top Savings” shows you the best deals for that week. Otherwise, you can browse discounted items by department, just as you might look for brightly colored discounted price tags if you were pushing a real shopping cart down a real aisle. The expiration dates for available savings are also conveniently displayed in the app, just as you would see them in-store, so you don’t have to take advantage of them.
The best part about the Flyers feature is that you can see how much off you get on discounted items compared to the original Instacart price. This is a godsend for people who tend to shop outside of their regular carts and only buy items because they’re on sale.
What is Instacart and how does it work?
Instacart can get your grocery order to you quickly, sometimes within an hour.
Founded in 2012, Instacart is an app that partners with national and local brick-and-mortar retailers to let you shop for groceries without leaving your home. You shop at the digital store, and once your order is placed, a human shopper picks your order and delivers your groceries to you, usually within a few hours of placing your order — hence the “Insta” in the brand name.
My first experience with Instacart was after back surgery, when I was saddled with a six-week no-lifting order. Rather than ask friends to do the biweekly grocery shopping required for NYC’s limited-storage kitchens, I opted to maintain positive friendships and have an Instacart shopper do it for me. I’ve used it several times a year since then, mostly after travel, when I’ve been sick, or just when the workload has become overwhelming. Occasionally, during inclement weather.
The biggest downside to Instacart is its inflated fees. In addition to the various fees added to your grocery order (described below), the prices themselves are slightly higher than what you’d see in a brick-and-mortar store, as a way to support the service. I’ve found Instacart worthwhile regardless, but I was especially happy to see these new additions to the service that can help where it counts most: with the receipt.
