Other people do do that - I’ve checked out Shipt shoppers where the person hands me a pile of stuff and says “the customer changed their mind”. Which is, yes, a little inconvenient BUT at least with the Shipt people they’ll either stick it back on the shelf properly (if not out of their way) or hand it to one of us so we can properly and efficiently reshelve it. I mean, we also all cook/shop, too, and we understand how missing one ingredient can cause issues with your shopping. It is far, far, far from the worst thing customer do to us. But do what works for you, options are good.
I agree that there are issues surrounding what’s in stock when you order vs. what’s in stock when the shopper comes by. For popular items it might, in fact, be in stock when you order and even when the shopper arrives at the store but other customers might clear the shelf before the buyer actually gets to that item and, contrary to what some believe, we don’t have an immense hidden stock of stuff in the back room. We’re there to sell stuff, not hide it. If the shelf is empty odds are high that we really don’t have any stock left in the store although you can always ask us to check.
I have the same complaint. Last time it was “revised” some clueless idiot put Swiss chard under the fruit category.
A bit off topic, but I’ve gotta say I see the Instacart shoppers at the Brooklyn Wegman’s, and holy shit, these people hustle.
They’ve got stickers all over their shirts (not sure what the stickers are – they seem to have bar codes on them, something to do with the order, I guess), they’re obviously handling two or three shopping orders, and two or three carts, simultaneously, and they get it done fast. And Wegman’s has a special area set aside for them to put their stuff and their shopping carts and so on, and a dedicated checkout for them.
They’re amazing. I hope they’re making good money. They’re certainly earning it.
I guess the US is just catching up with other countries in city areas, and has different issues to most of Europe in more rural regions. Online grocery shopping is almst the norm in England now, depending on age.
Not exactly - you can order from Ocado; they don’t just make software. They delivered Waitrose groceries for a couple of decades, and now deliver M&S products, and have their own branded vans as well as vans branded for specific supermarkets.
Yep, the professional shoppers are efficient. Well, the ones that last longer than a month, a lot of people try doing this but find out that it is actual work and you do have to hustle.
That said, I know one of our shoppers earned $30k+ last year. If you’re good you get not only the base rate but tips.
What trips some people up is that you are, in fact, considered an independent contractor so taxes at the end of the year can be a problem if you aren’t aware of the differences between that and a W2 formal employee type job.
I think that’ll depend on what your first choice was. If you ordered Megafarm’s conventionally-grown cabbage, and the only substitution available is Dave and Cindy’s organically-grown hand-caressed cabbage, it’s not surprising that the substitution will be more expensive.
Shoppers are on the clock; they’re not going to waste time seeking out produce/meat of a particular quality, they’re going to give you the first one their eyes lock onto. Besides, if your delivery service is a third party (e.g. Instacart), they have an incentive to give you the absolute best items they can find, not the worst.
Whole Foods also has a very forgiving satisfaction policy: if the quality of your food item doesn’t measure up, they’ll refund your cost, and they won’t even ask you to return the item. So their shoppers don’t have a particular incentive to foist their lowest-quality items off on delivery customers.
Overall our experience with delivery has been very good for the past year, with some surprising windfalls:
Last summer we ordered $30 worth of chicken ribs from Whole Foods, but got $30 worth of boneless skinless breast cuts instead. Called Amazon, and they refunded our cost and said we could keep the breast cuts.
Earlier this year the Whole Foods shopper dropped off a bag of somebody else’s groceries along with our order. I called Amazon to let them know what happened, and they said thanks, keep it. It was about $70 worth of food in that bonus bag.
A couple of months ago we had Instacart deliver some stuff to us from Costco, including four 1-pound packages of smoked salmon. Not sure how, but we were only charged for one package, meaning we got about $50 worth of smoked salmon for free.
Some crap produce has also come our way once in a while, but Amazon’s system makes it extremely easy to ask for (and receive) a refund).
But do what works for you, options are good.