Instacart grocery delivery: Upgrades abound for consumers
Grocery home delivery isn't new, but the options Instacart gives customers to shop multiple stores is creating greater appeal and convenience.
My 80-year-old father was excited. Not about an upcoming trip to Europe with my mother, or a new item for his collection of civil aviation memorabilia, or about the next family celebration.
No, during these days of COVID-19 shelter-at-home, one thing thrills my Manhattan-based Dad more than anything else: That is, getting a coveted grocery delivery slot from one of the top online grocers, including Whole Foods, Costco, and Instacart.
“I tried to check out 28 times with no luck,” he told me animatedly over a recent Zoom call. “Suddenly I won a slot in the middle of the afternoon!” He was positively gleeful, triumphant in his hard-won success.
Of course, there have also been failures in my father’s efforts to gamble big on grocery delivery. There was the order that was mysteriously canceled after it went through.
Another arrived with missing items that were nevertheless charged to his credit card. Then there was the agony of defeat, experienced when my Dad dared to breathe before pressing “checkout.” In that quick moment of indecision, his slot vanished without a trace.
Grocery delivery during COVID-19: Platforms surge, but shoppers can’t get a delivery slot
Welcome to the Grocery Games: My father is just one of millions experiencing the new state of food shopping: Crazy, intense, and all online, as more consumers try to order from home rather than deal with long lines and increased risks in brick-and-mortar stores.
As filled with adrenaline as someone playing the slots at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, shoppers share insider tips about after-midnight openings and fill digital carts on several sites to hedge their bets. They hit refresh again and again, hoping to hit the sweet spot.
But success isn’t always a slam-dunk. Even if food and household goods arrive, more often than not, high-demand items are missing.
In recent years, U.S. grocery shopping had seen a very slow migration online, making up just 3% of the food retail market, according to a Deutsche Bank report.
As the crisis hit, however, delivery orders surged after shelter-in-place orders were implemented. Demand has soared so high that some retailers, such as Amazon, have stopped accepting new grocery delivery customers and are creating waiting lists. Many, including Instacart and Walmart, are hiring hundreds of thousands of new workers to help fill orders.
But in places like New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, it’s clearly not yet enough. Online grocery orders in the five boroughs more than doubled during a stretch of mid-March, compared to the same time frame last year, according to e-commerce research firm Rakuten Intelligence.
Last week, Fresh Direct, an online grocer that delivers in the New York metropolitan area, announced it would address the new demand, but said in a Facebook post that “an easy solution is not in sight.”
In recent days, the fierce competition led Walmart to announce it would provide certain grocery pick-up and delivery slots just for the elderly, at-risk populations and first responders, displaying a new prompt that describes the qualifications for selecting the slot listed as “At Risk Only.”
Strategies shift for grocery retailers and consumers
Some shoppers are beginning to shift strategies and getting creative about where to order food and household goods for delivery.
For example, Chicago Steak Company offers meat in bulk and Edible Arrangements is delivering boxes of fresh produce. Local delis and specialty food stores may have staples available for delivery or curbside pickup.
In my small New Jersey town, the local farmer’s market has retooled offerings for pre-order online and no-contact pickup or delivery. I even ordered baking products and non-perishable food items at a San Diego-based Mexican specialty goods retailer.
Meanwhile, my father continues to perfect his grocery gambling ways, daring Whole Foods to call his bluff as he hunts for open slots across the internet as doggedly as if he was hunting for buffalo on the Western plains while trying to slot grocery delivery during COVID-19.
Still, when much-desired onions were nowhere to be found, he and my Mom finally gave up on hitting the jackpot. They donned masks and gloves, then headed cautiously for a fruit and vegetable street vendor a few blocks away. They gingerly did a cash toss and made their getaway with a small bag of onions under my mother’s arm. Of course, much hand-washing followed.
