BristolUK

Question for those who order groceries (not Instacart)...

Do you make second choices where they don't have your first choice or request refunds? Does the store contact you for potential replacements?

caretaker

My neighbour is on the last night of her week, busy baking bread when I texted her earlier. She'll be bringing me treats for the coming week and beyond, and a bag of cheese swirl buns. I just got up and ate the last piece of lemon cake to make more room in the fridge.

and then I went back and bought this smaller blueberry pie, which looked like it needed a home. At some point I may need to get some vanilla ice cream to go with it.

caretaker

If this was $25 or $30 I'd be all over it, but imo this was over-priced to start with. Yesterday there was a Free From Black Forest Ham that was drastically reduced, but without being able to drive wasn't able to act on it.

scrubbedexpat091

I wouldn't pay that price, but then I also don't like that kind of meat..ha ha

I usually find its mostly just bakery stuff, don't see much meat when I check but maybe meat products are popular and go fast and I just miss them, dunno, but always lots of bread, muffin and other sugary baked goods..

BristolUK

@J
Can you remember - if Instacart suggests an alternative do they "encourage" the shopper to get it if the customer hasn't selected an alternative?

I was just wondering because my MIL uses a laxative called Restoralax. It's a powder that ca be added to coffee (in her case) without affecting the taste.

Instacart said it was in short supply and the suggested alternative was a face moisturising cream for men.

scrubbedexpat091

If the customer selects no replacement, yes IC will suggest alternatives to the shopper, often the suggested replacement will as you experienced make no sense and some less smart shoppers will bring you face moisturizing cream instead of the laxative.

The algorithm isn't great as suggesting accurate products in the event the customer doesn't choose one. When I did if the customer didn't choose a replacement, I would message and tell them as give them alternatives that were in stock, if the customer didn't write me back, I would just refund that item.

On the shopper app its also kind of vague what is a IC suggestion vs what is a customers replacement choice, the wording was very similiar. Their shopping app sucks on a good day for the shoppers, like it will show on the customers end for bulk produce they want 1 pound of something but the for shopper it will say 1x which mean literally just 1 not 1 pound literally just 1 so if you ever put in you want 2 lbs of bulk item and only get 2 items and not 2 pounds now you know why, the shopper should message and clarify but many shoppers don't want to message and get slowed down, its all about speed and getting in and out and delivered ASAP to get another batch.

And IC will combine up to 3 different peoples orders into one batches, so if you see the person in check out mode for what seems like an idiotically long time or it takes them an hour to get to you after they are done, chances are you were 3rd delivery of a 3 order batch and IC order delivery often makes no logical sense either.

BristolUK

Okay. I was just wondering if the shopper was obligated to go along with it, you know, like the scripts some employers make people follow.

I've developed a routine of picking an alternative - or refund - but using the notes as well. "any size, any brand will do" or "this brand only" sort of thing.
And then, the moment I get an indication of the order being picked up, I say hello and then advise them I've named alternatives for everything. The idea then is they don't need to take photos of empty shelves and ask if I want an alternative when I've already picked one or said no alternative.

They seem to appreciate this, knowing that there won't be lots of to-ing and fro-ing slowing them down.
It's not fool-proof as I still get "they haven't got it, do you want something else" even when I have already selected something else or refund. But this might be where they're shopping for others as well and who are not as exact as me.

I'm well used to pauses and things indicating they're shopping for others too.

They don't seem to use the GPS anymore. I see they've completed my list and I thank them - sometimes I don't even get the checked out message - and 5 minutes later they're here.
(unless they are shopping for others still)

scrubbedexpat091

I think the GPS with multiple batches was causing more issues than benefit. I did IC as a customer last week, it sat on check out page for 90 minutes, very clearly he had multiple orders within the same batch and based on the melted ice cream we may have been the last order, I tried to get a refund for the melted ice cream cones, but IC refused, I probably wont use them, the service is pretty bad in my area.

IC does little training on how to use the app, and because shoppers are independent contractors the quality will vary some shoppers do it in addition to other apps too, which your not really supposed to do, but these apps pay so little so people will pick a job on IC then if they see a pick up on uber eats or door dash in the area may grab one of those on the way.....

caretaker

My friend is off picking up flashfood orders for me from 2 different stores this very minute. I think he deserves half of the monster ham for that.
Not a bad haul for under $30.
Edit: Not a monster ham, or even close (maybe $30?), but not bad for $15. I call typo.

BristolUK

Last October the IGA/Co-op supermarket in Dieppe stopped delivering to my area. It was a big loss because I could order using the flyer deals and they had stuff that other supermarkets don't have.

I've been meaning to call in on one of the days I had an appointment to see my eye doctor whose office is nearby but something has always made it difficult.

Today I went and I was quite disappointed. I had been expecting something resembling the old hypermarket trips to France compared to standard fare in UK supermarkets at that time. But aside from the stuff I already knew about it wasn't really much different.

The biggest way it was most like the French trips was it felt like being in a foreign country with all background conversations in French, product labels all French . Even the card machines at the checkouts were in French.

Bit of a disappointment all round. Even their Belgian bread was inferior to Sobeys Belgian bread.

But I did manage to score some mille-feuille napoleon slices. There's some dispute as to whether mille-feuille and napoleon are actually two different things but both names were used for these.

Delicious

scrubbedexpat091

I think I am going to stop buying groceries, cheaper that way.

caretaker

Yesterday I got a ride to No Frills and discovered the plastic shopping basket fits right between the handles of my walker and sits perfectly in the steel basket I attached with zip ties. I filled it to overflowing, otherwise would have bought more but I was getting sore anyway. Checkout was a snap, and I packed one large fabric bag and a double plastic bag full quickly enough that I didn't hold anyone up. By the time the cashier sanitized the belt for the next customer I was on the way out. To anyone who finds bagging groceries a bit challenging I recommend watching a few YouTube videos on it. It's been almost 50 years since I worked in a store and I think the videos I watched a couple of years ago helped speed up my performance. It's all basic stuff but thinking on your feet and recognising what has to go where in order from bottom of the bag up and then reaching for it speeds things up. A couple of the videos I watched were of bagging competitions. I would have liked to get some canned goods just to replace some I've used from my stash, and I need a jar of dill pickles (yesterday's Cuban sandwich took my last dill pickle), but I had 1 basket, and it was full. First time in a grocery store since getting hurt and it was nice to really shop in person.

scrubbedexpat091

Another frustrating thing about IC from a shopper perspective, when customers live in secured buildings and don't provide access code to said building, and then don't answer the shoppers messages or calls, shopper contacts IC chat support who then tries to contact the customer still no answer. Shopper told to return items to store.

Sure IC gives a $10 sorry for the inconvenience fee, but the shopper takes several hits when this situation happens.

They are penalized with an increased cancellation rate, IC doesn't distinguish between orders cancelled by the shopper and orders cancelled because of customers not being available, a cancel is a cancel as far as the algorithm goes.

Costs the shopper time, and gas and thus money, has to drive back to the store, spend time returning the items, and being its food, its all going to end up in the trash most likely as food items cannot be put back onto the shelf to sell.

Oh and the big one, the shopper is banned from accepting more batches for 24 hours, so their entire day is gone and they are unable to earn anything else that day.

Some of the docksides of IC.

BristolUK

"ring bell, leave on doorstep" is my common instruction. But I have noticed that if I don't put any instruction it defaults to leave at my door if I'm not around.
I'm not seeing why it can't just be left at the outer door providing there's a similar default.

If you book into a hotel, you give a credit card number and if you don't show, the card can be charged.
Instacart puts a similar hold on your card for the cost of the shopping and a bit more. If it's delivered as per instruction, I'm not following why payment from the customer isn't made with them getting their share and the shopper being paid as normal - albeit with the likelihood of reduced, or no, tip.

I'm guessing that there have been some examples, or allegations of, non delivery and the 'banning' of the shopper might just be a suspension pending investigation regardless of the known facts at the time.

scrubbedexpat091

You would have to ask IC why they wont let shoppers leave orders at the main door of apartments but my guess is its because too many people come by and its not secure, anyone could take the order.

Orders have to be delivered to the unit door, otherwise its not considered to have been delivered. For contactless order need to take a photo of the bags at the location you left them, so IC knows where you leave orders, and outside the main lobby door isn't acceptable.

Leaving with a concierge in the lobby would be okay, but not all buildings have a concierge.

This particular order was also not contactless so had to be delivered to the customer directly.

As far as I know IC refunds the customer when the order isn't delivered. So IC wouldn't make anything of his order, and as the items were returned to the store, IC got a refund from Wal-Mart.