The Pros and Cons of Instacart

budgetpractitioner ideas and...
Written By Judy Doherty, MPS, PCII

After shopping online for groceries for over five years, here are the pros and cons I've discovered along the way.

Five Pros:

  1. Instacart and many local store delivery services can often beat Amazon for speed and price. I always compare to see which is best. 

  2. Instacart and local grocery services offer a very convenient grocery shopping experience even beyond your grocery list. Using Instacart offers a great way to send gifts to people -- flowers and food from the grocery store are much more reasonable than online gift catalogs. 

  3. Now that Instacart has added a "shopping by aisle" feature, it is just as easy to navigate as a real store. The app also remembers what you put in your cart, which makes for an excellent start to your next grocery list.

  4. You can compare prices and nutrition facts, buy in-season items, and just about anything you would buy in an actual store. Except you get to skip the traffic, parking, and lengthy checkout process.

  5. One more great thing about the app is that you can always be aware of how much you are spending before you check out! It's very enlightening to scroll down and see how much processed foods like cookies, chips, and sodas cost per serving. And then delete them!

Two Cons:

  1. One downside of Instacart is that the store can be out of items even though you purchased them online. There are settings to help everyone, and you can pick between “substitute" and "refund. “ Watch your phone for alerts from shoppers when they start shopping. Some shoppers are very good about substituting, while others just refund whatever they can’t find, but hey, not all of us are black belt shoppers!

  2. It is more fun to shop in a real store for ideas and inspiration. Don’t pressure yourself to shop online all the time. To get a real-life experience, I often go to the farmers market on the weekend, where I can meet the growers and see what is local and in season.

By Judy Doherty, MPS, PCII

All in all, I have saved thousands of hours of time while supporting local businesses and shoppers by using Instacart. So my thumbs are way up for the process!Happy shopping!By Judy Doherty, MPS, PCII*Instacart is a grocery shopping service available in most areas and has a smartphone app you can download. Once you create an account and log in, you can search for items in local stores. When you add them to your cart and check out, you typically can get them delivered in a day or two.

Print Friendly and PDF
Judy Doherty, MPS, PCII

Judy’s passion for cooking began with helping her grandmother make raisin oatmeal for breakfast. From there, she earned her first food service job at 15, was accepted to the world-famous Culinary Institute of America at 18 (where she graduated second in her class), and went on to the Fachschule Richemont in Switzerland, where she focused on pastry arts and baking. After a decade in food service for Hyatt Hotels, Judy launched Food and Health Communications to focus on flavor and health. She graduated with Summa Cum Laude distinction from Johnson and Wales University with a BS in Culinary Arts, holds a master’s degree in Food Business from the Culinary Institute of America, two art certificates from UC Berkeley Extension, and runs a food photography & motion studio where her love is creating fun recipes and content.

Judy received The Culinary Institute of America’s Pro Chef II certification, the American Culinary Federation Bronze Medal, Gold Medal, and ACF Chef of the Year. Her enthusiasm for eating nutritiously and deliciously leads her to constantly innovate and use the latest nutritional science and Dietary Guidelines to guide her creativity, from putting new twists on fajitas to adapting Italian brownies to include ingredients like toasted nuts and cooked honey. Judy’s publishing company, Food and Health Communications, is dedicated to her vision that everyone can make food that tastes as good as it is for you.

Previous

Summer's Best Tomato Soup
Next

Let's Talk About Mung Bean Protein