Between returning from vacation and being completely swamped with work, I’d been in need of a Costco run. I was considering doing a Costco SameDay order (aka “InstaCart”), but in the penultimate stage of the cart, the $3 “priority fee” annoyed me enough to hesitate. I was distracted the rest of the day with work phone calls. By the next morning, I realized I needed gas anyway, so I just went when they opened and avoided the crowds.
Comparing the receipt of what I purchased to what the InstaCart was sobering. Individual items were an average of 9.3% above Warehouse prices. With the additional fees, InstaCart was 18% more expensive. Adding a driver tip, almost 29% more expensive. So, InstaCart is not practical for a medium-sized Costco purchase. Also, they lack several of Costco deli/ready-to-eat options (like Nigiri).
Here’s the price breakout:
| Instacart (“Same Day” Costco) | In-Warehouse | |
| Price of selected items | 288.98 | 263.98 |
| Coupons and rebates(1) | -32.00 | -31.00 |
| Service Fee(2) | 14.41 | |
| Priority Fee (if I want order by 4pm) | 3.00 | |
| Delivery Fee(3) | 5.99 | |
| Delivery Tip (10% of order) | 28.83 | |
| Total | 340.21 | 263.98 |
Notes:
(1)The $1 difference in coupons was a poorly-worded promotion for an additional $1 off 2 packages of cereal.
(2) InstaCart+ membership offers a discount of $8.93 on the service fee. The membership includes free PeacockTV (for EuroVision!) and 1 year of NY Times Cooking. There is a discount on the membership for Costco members.
(3) The delivery fee of $5.99 is waived if you have InstaCart+