For those of you who have Instacart Express

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

I'm curious as to whether you went with the annual or the monthly subscription.

For those interested, Instacart Express gives you free shipping (minimum order of $35), a reduced service fee (2% instead 5%), and shopping at more than one store with free delivery.

The annual subsciption cost $99 and the monthly one cost $9.99. So the difference is basically $20 over a year's time.

I signed up for the free trial, which is now about to expire. I've been debating which way to go and decided that I would be best off right now going monthly.

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Jordan2 · ‎03-16-2010

@suzyQ3 wrote:
I'm curious as to whether you went with the annual or the monthly subscription.

For those interested, Instacart Express gives you free shipping (minimum order of $35), a reduced service fee (2% instead 5%), and shopping at more than one store with free delivery.

The annual subsciption cost $99 and the monthly one cost $9.99. So the difference is basically $20 over a year's time.

I signed up for the free trial, which is now about to expire. I've been debating which way to go and decided that I would be best off right now going monthly.

I don't use it so I can't say. I guess it would depend how often you plan to use the service. If you won't use it at least once or twice a month I would go with the monthly fee, if you will use it more often I would go with the yearly fee. I know someone who paid $99, she loves it.

northiie57 · ‎01-07-2020

Just my experience with insta cart....I went with the monthly...I ended up cancelling as I used it for several months.....I feel it is great for pantry items but for meats, fresh fruits and vegs is a no for me....it really depends on your shopper, if you get a shopper who has no experience grocery shopping, you will get disappointed with the meats and produce they pick out.....secondly, if there is an item that is out of stock they will replace it willy nilly without my approval.....I had to message the shopper 3 times about it....for me it just was not worth it....I actually did go to my local grocery store and was really impressed how clean it was and every one was obiding by covid...I got some great deals on meat to the only way I would use it again if I could use the one shopper that did a great job.....but this only happened one...jmo....remember you can cancel at anytime and will refund any membership fees if it doesn't work out for you...hope you have better luck that I did

DiAnne · ‎09-22-2010

I signed up for monthly because I thought it was going to be a short term thing. Boy was I wrong. I get a delivery every Friday. I am going to leave it that way for now because I actually enjoy going to the store and hope to again someday!

I did not have any trouble with the replacements because when I made out the grocery list I put the sub I wanted or do not sub. I have never had any trouble with that.

Janey2 · ‎06-07-2010

I use Instacart express and went with the monthly charge. So far I have been very happy and no mistakes were made. I use it to shop at 2 different stores. I did not want to give them $99 up front because I did not know how long I would use them They sent me a $10 coupon before my last order so I consider this month free.

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

@Jordan2 wrote:
@suzyQ3 wrote:
I'm curious as to whether you went with the annual or the monthly subscription.

For those interested, Instacart Express gives you free shipping (minimum order of $35), a reduced service fee (2% instead 5%), and shopping at more than one store with free delivery.

The annual subsciption cost $99 and the monthly one cost $9.99. So the difference is basically $20 over a year's time.

I signed up for the free trial, which is now about to expire. I've been debating which way to go and decided that I would be best off right now going monthly.
I don't use it so I can't say. I guess it would depend how often you plan to use the service. If you won't use it at least once or twice a month I would go with the monthly fee, if you will use it more often I would go with the yearly fee. I know someone who paid $99, she loves it.

Thanks, @Jordan2, We order once a week, and every once in while, we might order from other than our preferred store in a week as well.

Unless my math is wrong, though, I don't think that order frequency affects the choice between monthly or annual. I think that they charge an overall $20 less if you go annual just to attract those who are pretty sure they'll be using it for that amount of time.

You can't cancel the yearly deal after the first two weeks, whereas you can of course cancel the monthly anytime.

It's true that if I do go the whole year with my monthly, I will have have paid $20 more. I can live with that. I hope that I will be able to shop in person before that.:-)

Hey, more than you needed to know since you don't use it, eh!

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Mindy D · ‎05-23-2010

The reason I have not joined is because I use Instacart through a Publix. The really costly part is that Instacart jacks up the prices of all the items. That's where I'd like to see some savings if I joined. The delivery price isn't high my way. The tip, however, is another place where I feel I should spend a great deal..20%-30%, depending on what I order. I find that my total for an order is much, much higher than in-store shopping, but I'm forced to use delivery to stay safe. To put a membership on top of all my other costs doesn't make sense to me.

Greeneyedlady21 · ‎01-06-2015

I'm doing the monthly for now.

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

suzyQ3 · ‎03-09-2010

@Mindy D wrote:
The reason I have not joined is because I use Instacart through a Publix. The really costly part is that Instacart jacks up the prices of all the items. That's where I'd like to see some savings if I joined. The delivery price isn't high my way. The tip, however, is another place where I feel I should spend a great deal..20%-30%, depending on what I order. I find that my total for an order is much, much higher than in-store shopping, but I'm forced to use delivery to stay safe. To put a membership on top of all my other costs doesn't make sense to me.

@Mindy D, that's exactly how I felt. I was ordering through a supermarket that partners with Instacart. I had also seen higher amount when I did look on the Instacart site itself.

But unfortunately, my supermarket's setup precluded transparency. My account never showed my orders and amounts, so it was impossible to see if there were mistakes. Our only amount was the one from our credit card company, which of course is just a total and not an itemization.

So I checked Instacart again about three weeks ago, and for some reason, the prices were much in line with the store itself. Oh, also my store charged $9 and change for delivery.

Instacart charges $3,99 plus a 5% service fee; with Express, shipping is free, and the service charge is 2%. Over the long haul, I will save money.

And I see exactly what I'm paying, even getting a rundown of what was not available and what any substitutes cost.

I do agree that in any case it's more expensive that going to the market, I would say primarily due to the tip. But then we're helping someone who most likely is in need. One other plus is that often at the market, I browse and end up sometimes buying more than I had planned. :-)

~Who in the world am I? Ah, that's the great puzzle~ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

January121 · ‎03-21-2010

I am not that crazy about Instacart .. I am using it because of COVID-19 & I don’t want to go out to shop ... if the person shopping for you knows how to shop then all is good however, I have had problems with them & had to spend some time to get things corrected... my SIL ordered 300.00 worth of food & it never arrived ... found out that the delivery guy absconded with it!!!! .... I can’t wait for this to be over!!!