Coronavirus Avoidance – Shopping Part 2 – Using Instacart with Costco

This is difficult to believe. In fact, I’m blown away. Using Instacart to shop at Costco was a faster experience than if I had shopped personally.

Yesterday I used Instacart.com to place an order from my local Publix supermarket. The entire process, from clicking the order button to delivery took two hours and ten minutes. To me, especially since that was my first experience using Instacart, that was impressive.

Today, I repeated the Instacart test using Costco. The same process, from pressing the order button to seeing the items magically appear at my door, took only one hour and fifteen minutes. That’s faster than I could have done it myself.

The order was placed at 10:25am and while the initial notification stated a delivery time of 2:25pm – 3:25pm, at 11:15am a text notified me that the order was on the way with an updated ETA of 12:10pm. The doorbell rang at 11:40am and there was Raul with a neatly packed box of Costco purchases. Unlike my experience using Instacart with Publix, I did not see the option of having the items left at the front door and I was required to provide a signature to confirm delivery.

As anyone who has ever shopped at a Costco will surely attest, I feel I saved money by not making the incidental or impulse purchases I typically would have made when perusing the strategically placed array of aisles and product displays.

To put things in perspective, my local Costco warehouse is located 16 miles from my home. With typical Orlando traffic, this drive would take just under 30 minutes…each way. Once arriving at the store, finding a parking spot, walking through the large warehouse store, selecting the desired items and then waiting in line at the checkout would typically take me at least 45 minutes…if not longer. This is why I was pleasantly surprised to have my order delivered in one hour and fifteen minutes. That’s faster than Amazon and I live in a same day market. Wow!

Today’s order included six items ranging from a bag of keto trail mix and fresh shrimp salad to a box of triple bade razors. The subtotal for the items was $118.36 plus tax of $2.77 and a tip of $5.92 as well as a service fee of $5.92. The total for the goods and fees came to $132.97. I’ll add that the order was 100% correct with no substitutions and the bagged salad and shrimp salad were still cool to the touch upon arrival.

While I did not price check the products in the store, the costs appear to be the same of what I would typically pay when shopping in person. With the tip and service fees, the additional cost of the Instacart service came to $11.80.

While you might have a different opinion, avoiding Orlando I-4 traffic along with the inherent benefit of not being in crowded areas during this period of Coronavirus uncertainty, I feel this was a fair price for this convenience. But, it needs to be repeated that I was blown away at the one-hour and fifteen-minute period between the order and delivery to my front door.