IGA selling chickens for $1.67/lb. I bought four, all about $5.70 each. Helped to take the edge off four confit duck legs for $30 (and that was reduced )

This is where I get highly irritated with Instacart.
The new Walmart flyer has 7 items on the front page with good deals. Instacart has the same price for only one of them
Flyer price / Instacart price

Stove top stuffing $0.84 / $0.84
BD Cheese $3.97 / $6.77
Mushrooms $0.87 / $2.27
Deli Express bacon $2.97 / $4.97
Tropicana OJ $2.77 / $4.97
Ruffles crisps $1.97 / $2.97
Royale bog roll 30/80 $15.97 / $23.97

Buy one of each in-store and it costs $29.36
Buy the same from Instacart for $46.76 plus the various fees.

Is that their business model, supposedly "free delivery" but basically undiscounted prices.

On a UK note, Occado is now more valuable (market value) than Tesco !

They don't offer free anything....Instacart that is.

Britsol pays a monthly fee I believe which waives the service fee I think.

Where I don't use it enough too justify the fee, well I rarely use it, I just go shopping now. But here is an example of an order with the fees, and basic tip from an IC order.

$3.99 delivery fee goes to IC
$7.94 service fee goes to IC
$7.94 tip goes to the person who delivers. (5% default tip used, many change the tip to $0 or $1 thinking the delivery fee goes to the shopper who delivers.)

Expensive !

Metro (Ontario) are now offering online shopping and delivery - but it isn't cheap. $11 delivery fee, plus 'assembly' fee

Sobeys are using OCADO for ordering online, and they allow the deals from looking at it, their website seems much better than many for shopping, a working dropdown menu system that works. Minimum $50 order - $7.99 fee. https://voila.ca/?ds_rl=1287639&gcli...SAAEgJz0PD_BwE

Grocery Gateway are reasonable on prices.

They have a fixed delivery fee and a 5% service fee. The fixed fee doesn't apply if one pays the monthly 'membership' and the 5% is only 2%. Shopping for 4 people, you only need to use them twice a month for the monthly fee to be the better option. But better/cheaper is only in relation to the fees. One can see just how much more expensive it is than being there even before the fees are added.

Fortunately there is another store here (IGA) that does do flyer prices so the additional cost from instacart can be evened out.

Js...you might want to look at that again. If $7.94 is 5% then your bill was $158.80.

If you pay the monthly fee - $9.99 here - you would not have the $3.99 to pay and the 5% service fee $7.94 would be 2% instead which is $3.18.
So paying 3.18 instead of (7.94+3.99) 11.93, saves $8.75.

Obviously you have paid $9.99 in order to save that 8.75. But you only have to repeat the order again in the same month and you'd only need to pay $3.18 the next time instead of $11.93 again. Plus the even higher fee if you want stuff "in the next two hours" is not charged.

Of course if you're unlikely to repeat the order in a month the none of this matters. It works for us, it may not for you.

IGA is $4 assembly here and $10 delivery. I add $5 for the driver - it's not really local to me.
But my receipt shows I save $35-$40 every time because of the flyer prices, so I'm still quids in after the additions.

Plus they keep offering $10 discount or free delivery (same thing)

It was a mock order, I just randomly added a bunch of stuff to the cart to get the fees on an airder, and yes the mock order came to 158 ish if I recall. I added milk, cheese, eggs, beef, and other stuff to try and recreate a "normal" order.

I suppose that given the lower population density in NA, grocery delivery is going to be a more expensive proposition, hence the service fee.

A service fee - as a % of the grocery spend - is a bit odd in addition to the delivery fee but I don't have an issue with that. In my case I'd be going by bus and coming back by taxi so the delivery costs are not bad compared with that. It's those higher-than-they-should-be charges that get my goat.

The % fee does seem a bit unfair. For example if one were to stock up on various pharmacy items, all relatively small but high priced the deleivery fee would shoot up (despite very little increase in required delivery space). Delivery fees are understandable. Here it's from free to about £7 depending on the time slot. Typically I pay £2-4 I think, though I don't order online that often. Missing out on store discounts is definitely goat territory !

With instacart I don't think their business model is sustainable, hence the fees, and now they are facing competition from grocery stores more and more, and even less reason for people to use them.

IC does provide a base pay, but without tips most of the base pay isn't worth it, before we got deactivated, there was often this crazy order nobody ever took so it sat for days and days waiting for a shopper to accept, but why would any shopper accept it? It was something like 65 units, 35km delivery, $0 tip, and IC was only offering $22 for the batch, $22 plus $0 tip to drive 70km round-trip simply isn't worthwhile. You would think IC or that customer would take a hint.

US customers tend to tip better than Canadian's do, so its a more lucrative side gig in the US.

In my area Save On delivers, their delivery free is anywhere from $3.95 to $7.95 depending on time slot you choose, but their drivers are employees, driving company vans, being paid $17/hr, union, and can't accept tips.

The other big grocery stores Wal-Mart and the various Loblaws brands don't really deliver they just partner with IC, but some like Wal-Mart and Loblaws owned Super Store, Independent and some other brands do offer order online and pick up at store, where you choose a time slot, order, go to store call a number, someone comes out and loads your car. You will get the flyer pricing and store prices with the pick up serve as well, the fee is often waived too if you order enough, but is still reasonable at $3.95 ish.

Thanks. I really don't know about Canadian grocery delivery. Are you working at IC by the way ??