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

Comments

• BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  To be honest, paying a contractor $100 to drive to a grocery store, pickup $435 worth of groceries, drive them to you, unload them, then drive home is pretty reasonable. Many professional companies will charge that or more for an hour of employee time.

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  • cecirdr@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • FunderPants@lemmy.ca ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      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” . The implication being when I use their online grocery order app they are already charging me different prices, and hidden fees.

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    • scottywh@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Just to clarify, the majority of those markups are actually imposed by Instacart and not “the store” for what it’s worth.

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  • buckykat@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      “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…

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    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      When you hire a general contractor and they send someone out, that individual at your house doesn’t get the $100 either.

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  • Docandersonn@lemm.ee ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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• krayj@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Is this not a thing that is already known by every customer of these services? Seems naive to suddenly have a TIL moment over this.

  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.

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  • renrenPDX@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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• fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

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  • ramblinguy@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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

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    • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That’s life.

      I pay a person to clean my house every two weeks. Totally worth it.

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  • unconsciousvoidling@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    any pay nothing to the person doing all the work. they just pocket the service fee.

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  • SinningStromgald@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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  • krische@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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  • danielton@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    There are still people out there who believe everybody should still stay home due to covid. These services aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.

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• XeroxCool@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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

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• friend_of_satan@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Do they think Instacart is a charity? Would these people go grocery shopping for somebody else for less than $100?

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  • Khanzarate@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    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.

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• madthumbs@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I used Instacart through the pandemic until vaccines were available. I knew about the markups, but couldn’t easily figure them out. -That’s not the problem I have with Instacart.

  The big problem is their ability to leverage a discount from the store, which is even harder to figure out (outside of hearsay). -This makes it far more difficult for personal shoppers to compete on their own, or for customers to acquire a quality personal shopper they can rely on for a competitive rate.

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• autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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!

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  • DharmaCurious@startrek.website ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Good bot. … Do we good bot here?

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    • BombOmOm@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      I don’t see why not. :)

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    • krayj@sh.itjust.works ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      “Good Bot” “Bad Bot” was done on Reddit because there was a “Bot Ranks” service watching for that feedback and aggregating results on the 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.

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• coheedcollapse@lemmy.world ⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  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.

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