For restaurants, it keeps their menu price artificially low. Imagine if they have to actually pay their staff and not rely on tips, how the prices would increase.Suddenly their 8.99 lunch special becomes something closer to 12.99 and they can’t compete with fastfood or fast casual anymore… except, well most people already know if you go to an actual restaurant the tipping increases it. It’s not really a trick so much as an annoying practice.
Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater. I know two regular Instacart users who do the same thing, on purpose, because they don’t like to have the Instacart person spend too long getting groceries (or whatever store product they are at.) It’s also not just groceries, you know that, right?
By the way, the two people mentioned above? Both seniors that cannot drive. Feel free to slam Instacart for this horrible practice, or put more bluntly, THEFT of the tip to their workers. But I would propose we ease up on anyone using a service, that’s what it’s there for. Some people don’t have time, can’t drive, have other things they need to do, whatever. Hell, have you seen the Amazon threads on this forum? A huge chunk of us are guilty of using these services, me included, and it has zero to do with a specific age/class/whatever.
You want to do your best for delivery drivers?
Cash tips, always.
Fair enough. The way it was presented in the context of the article though was not doing anyone any favors. Except maybe that guy’s Instacart delivery driver, provided he’s tipping in cash. ;-) I understand your point though, and agree that for some people these services are literal lifesavers.
We could have an entirely separate thread about how we’ve developed this instant gratification economy and how it’s both a good and a bad thing.
The spend 2-3 hours grocery shopping on Sundays thing was actually not something the younger generations were doing, before these delivery services were available.
But more importantly, who says because the Boomers did it that that somehow makes it… right and other patterns wrong?
Shopping services feel tough for me, because I’m often so persnickety about what I cook with, but man I’d love to get that hour and a half traipse around the supermarket back each week. And the mid-week fill-up. And the late Friday “oh shit we need milk” trip I send the gf on when she’s driving home from work.
I am not the best planner.
It’s like everything else. Your time is valuable. My time is valuable. It may be worth the cost to have someone else do the shopping for you. If they did it right we might have one van delivering to five houses instead of five cars going to the same place. Who knows?
The idea though, that it’s always been done this way and therefore it has to be done this way is closer to the actual argument than any suggestion that it’s about instant gratification. Whether I do the shopping or someone does the shopping for me… it’s getting done. Same hours, maybe even fewer. I’d imagine people who shop or deliver for a living will get more efficient at it. Also, if you have someone shop for you from a set list, guess what that destroys, impulse shopping.
I have replaced grocery store visits with Amazon Fresh for about 75% of my shopping, and there is no way I’m going back. Lay in bed and spend 10 minutes shopping on my phone, and I wake up the next day and it is on my doorstep. I pay $15/month for the privilege, so I order once or twice a week from the service ($50 minimum).
The 25% of the time that I go to the grocery store is if I’m looking for something obscure or particularly high quality in the meats or produce. Or because I’ve forgotten to order my kids diapers or something.
I have been having my weekly shop delievered for years. Our big supermarkets do it. I book a 1 hour slot a few weeks in advance, place my order on the pc and they deliver it in the time slot.
Rarely have issues or poor items or mistakes. Hate it when i have to go do a big shop in store. I also find we tend to buy less rubbish also impulse buys are a lot less too.
This in the UK and it costs me £6.50 a month for the privilige.
Great links, thanks for sharing.
For the record, nowhere was I insisting that anyone go to the grocery store for 2-3 hours on a Sunday. I don’t even do that. With Click-List, grocery pickup, delivery services, etc. there are a myriad of great ways to maximize your time:cost ratio on grocery shopping. My argument was that maybe having groceries delivered to your house every 2 days like the guy in the article wasn’t really the most efficient way of doing it, and that perhaps that guy (and others) might be taking it to the extreme.
Hey Sounds like a fellow Fred Meyer or Kroger shopper.
I used to do this myself, not delivery, but picking of 3-4 things on the way home from work. The store were on the way home so it was more like a detour. It eliminated shopping on Sundays almost entirely because every couple of days I would just buy a few a things. The want isn’t really new. Now delivery wasn’t nearly as widespread then as it is now. I haven’t commuted in years now, but I’ll pick up bread, cheese and mayo today and then in three days steak goes on sale so I will pick that up with a few vegetables… I am pretty sure that pattern was kind of happening before the delivery drivers hit the road. It was also the reason I got so frustration when Express checkouts were closed and people with over 100 dollars in groceries clogged up self checkouts. I just want to get my three things and go!
Yup, Kroger here! They got their start in my area. My office downtown is only a couple of blocks from their headquarters.
I could definitely see myself doing that if I was only shopping for myself. With kids though my grocery haul is four times what I’d be buying just for me, so planning and executing a single big trip is more effective for me. I completely agree about the aggravation of the overloaded people at the self-checkouts and stores that have maybe 2 lanes out of 20 open for regular checkout. Once my kids are grown and out of my house, that aggravation will likely be the single deciding factor that pushes me into online order and delivery so I never need to set foot in the store again.
Heh, yeah with kids I can imagine. My youngest nephew used to reach out for anything with a character on a box. It’s definitely easier to leave him behind, him and his dad.
Fred Meyer switched from a Sunday thru Saturday add to a Wednesday thru Tuesday in the last year or two. Because of Click List I can actually pick up my groceries at lunch, which I couldn’t really do before. The young guys there are actually very nice, and they are not allowed to take tips.
Yeah it was noticeable. I’m not sure if that’s a stereotype of the person, age, location or hell, just that person. I do know people like that who are NOT seniors. Some of them are also bad with money management, which should be no surprise.
Amen, brother. I’ve played a part and yet lamented the businesses going bankrupt because of it. I’m riding the top of the hypocrisy wave for sure.
I worked grocery waaaaay back in high school. I think there have always been frequent shoppers versus pay day shoppers. And I’m betting there are the same types for delivery services as well. Small frequent orders and HUGE orders.
I’ve not ordered groceries yet but I use DoorDash a bit. I think the groceries near me are just too convenient to get to, otherwise I’d be on that. But training my GF’s mother how to order hers and then helping a neighbor do the same thing really, really helps those folks.
I actually order grocery delivery from Hyvee a lot. I am a really bad impulse shopper, and any trip to Hyvee would end up with me walking home with 10-20 dollars of stuff we don’t really need. Like the local bakery blueberry donuts they sell, or some on-sale chips etc.
I like to plan out meals, order ingredients and have them delivered. It helps keep the budget down a bit.
reminder: it’s still a good idea to call the restaurant directly for orders