App of the Month

To say I'm late to the party on Instacart would be quite the understatement. 

I know many used it during the height of the pandemic, and since. Je did not. I masked up, Purell'd up and went to the store like the invincible being I assumed I was. 

Back then, I only had a potential infection to bring me down. On our group vacation last year, some in the house used it several times per day!

To be transparent, we've never used GrubHub or DoorDash either. Granted, I can be lazy, but if I'm not cooking, I can go out and get dinner myself, and probably faster than they can deliver. I have nothing with which to back that last statement up, as I have done no comparison. I just feel it to be true.

Now I've got only one good leg, two crutches and not a great way of operating a grocery store cart, let alone getting things from store to car and car to house. At least not on my own. 

Even doing the laps around the store might wear me out, and then of course, those other annoying shoppers are in my way. As 710 has pretty much 100% dog duty, I can't ask him to do the shopping too, so I thought I'd subject myself to food delivery. 

I really wasn't thinking of a post when I did this, so I might not (read: don't) have screen shots for each step of the way, including the creating of an account and my shopping list. I'll try to explain as I go along, but some of you already know better than I.  

It was easy enough ot sign-up with email / phone number. 

You then select your store of choice. The one I normally use is not an option it seems, so I had to pick another chain, which is fine-ish. I wasn't planning on getting everything via this app anyway. 

Just one view of me asking for 'strawberries'.  I didn't ask for raspberries or blueberries, yet they appear. 

It is my one big gripe with the app is how it shows the choices: all over the place.  Say I asked for granola.  There are subcategories for bars, instant, etc. But I go for a specific kind - Kind, actually, as it is its own category. And yeah, one of their products shows up, then a bunch of other brands. I had to scroll two sections and load more to get to the one Kind I wanted. It's madness!

What I don't have a shot of is after I submit my list, I almost immediately got a request for five items for which I might need substitutions. This also irked me. Kind of. Yes, it's a good feature and I selected some with an ok exchange and some with a don't get at all if they don't have it.  My irk?  All my selected items said 'plenty in stock'.  If so, then............why would I need a substitution? 

Anyhoo - I checked out and paid with Apple Pay, but there are multiple ways to exchange funds. 

All during this, it's giving your estimated delivery times. And then I started getting notifications.  I believe you're all smart enough to figure out the chain of events, so I won't go into detail. 

As I was getting this last text, the delivery person was in the driveway. 

I was going to meet her, but, you know.........crutches. So by the time I had arrived, she'd already rung the bell and was back in her car. 

The groceries were left exactly where I asked. 

Yes, I had to carry them in one-by-one, and slowly at that. But nothing in the stuff was truly bruiseable or breakable, so, I was ok. 

That said, I was skeptical on someone else picking my produce, so I eased in by ordering only strawberries and green onions. I might not have picked that package of berries they did, but they'll work. 

And I did not have them pick out protein. Fish? Je think not. Maybe next time with beef or chicken should be fine. I like checking sell by and expirations dates. I don't know what these folks check, if anything. Also, they don't the schedule in which we might use said protein. 

Overall, it was a success. I was pretty happy with the experience. As I convalesce no doubt I will use this app here and there. If it becomes a standard, who knows. 

I'd give the app 4 out of 5 stars.