CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. – With all the excitement of Wegmans offering grocery delivery in Western New York – the Cheektowaga Chronicle staff (aka the Herr family) wanted to know how it works and if it’s worth it.
We’ve finally reached the point where we need groceries in the Chronicle household. This week, there is a little issue with our weekly scheduled Wegman’s trip. We’re dog sitting for family and the pooch has a bit of separation anxiety, crying whenever he is left alone.
Being mindful of our neighbors, and not wanting to end up in the police blotter for a loud dog noise complaint – this was the perfect time to test out the new Instacart service.
Instacart is a separate company from Wegmans. They are the partner for the delivery service. There’s a whole FAQ on the Wegmans site describing how it works.
It’s easy to sign up on the Instacart site. You just put in your zip code, then you’re prompted to put in your email or sign up with Facebook.
From there, it’s almost an experience like shopping on any other website. You just search the items you want and you can even narrow down your search by brand (including the store brand).
We ordered the same items we had on our list that we compose through the Wegman’s app (right now Instacart and the Wegman’s app are not linked). The total for the items on the app (which has the current prices for our store on Dick Road) was $100.10. Our total on Instacart was $114.63. There is an added expense for some of the items.
The service isn’t free, there is a 10% service fee (ours worked out to be $11.33) plus a standard $5.99 delivery fee. But, if you sign up for for the service before August 15th, you will get a free year of Instacart Express which waives the $5.99 delivery fee per order for a whole year.
We found an extra coupon code for $20 off your first order “HELLOBUFFALO” – that covered the service fee.
Don’t expect this to satisfy your late night cravings. The service is typically available from 9 am – 10 pm but you can schedule a delivery date and time seven days in advance.
This was kind of a last minute decision for our household. The earliest delivery time was “within two hours” and that’s the option we chose. Our order was placed at 3:25 p.m. At 3:39 we got a text message telling us that our personal shopper Kiandra started picking up the items. Once we got that notification we could no longer edit items in our cart.
We got a couple texts through the process notifying us that some of our items were out of stock. Our shopper told us what she was substituting the items with – and we were sent a link to approve the change, pick another similar item, or just ask for a refund. (In both items we asked for a refund. The tastebuds want what the tastebuds want.)
At 4:27 p.m. we got a text saying that Kiandra was on her way to our house from the Losson Road Wegmans. On the Instacart website we could track where she was on a map. (Our fridge was finally going to have some food!) She arrived about 20 minutes later with her backseat filled with our week’s worth of groceries. The delivery arrived an hour before we expected it. When the delivery was complete we were prompted to rate the service and give a tip.
Would we use this service regularly? Ehhhh… that depends on your definition of “regularly”. We actually enjoy going to the store and checking things out when we can. But when life gets busy, or we get sick, or just plain lazy – it’s a good option to have. Those are the times were are likely to take advantage of the service. Every now and then it’s worth the extra cash for a bit of convenience.
