As the weather in New York City is rapidly declining for the winter, leaving the comfort and warmth of your own bed becomes a thousand times harder. Putting on a bunch of winter clothes and making the trek to the grocery store to buy the food you need every week can get tiring. Especially, if personally, you live in an outer borough where grocery stores are a further walk away, and some don’t have all you need. Is it really worth taking the subway to Manhattan fourty minutes each way just to find the Ben and Jerry’s flavor you’re looking for? No.
The other day, I was having a conversation with my dad about the concept of escalators for carts at grocery stores like Whole Foods and he asked if I had ever tried a grocery delivery service. I said “No.” Yet, this weekend, as my school work load grew and my energy for going outside to buy the food I needed for the week diminished, I impulsively downloaded Instacart – one of the many grocery apps on the App Store. By the way, this is not sponsored. I’m just a lazy college student. I felt like I should address that.
After downloading Instacart, they gave the opportunity of “Free Delivery” for the first order. I chose one of the grocery stores it listed that was in my delivery radius and began entering the exact items I needed. It showed images of the items, too, which was helpful. Bagels? Check. Mac and cheese? Check. Ben and Jerry’s “Half Baked”? Check, duh. One by one, I was able to fill up my “E-cart” with ease and not have to push a legitimate shopping cart up-and-down each aisle trying to find what I needed.
When I finished, I entered my payment information and it asked substitutions in case any of the items were sold out. However, it didn’t ask what I wanted to substitute for each item, only three in my cart. It piared me with a shopper, similar to the way Uber pairs you with a driver, and I waited for my groceries to come. The only thing that I didn’t like with Instacart is that for the rest of my cart items, it selected auto-substitutions instead of not buying the item I wanted to begin with, so I ended up with a whole box of cheese crackers. It’s not that bad, though, and now I know if I use it again to make sure each item is correctly set to the right exchange options.
About an hour later, my groceries arrived and I unloaded them into the cabinets and fridge in my apartment. Using Instacart, or other grocery delivery services like Fresh Direct and more, are a easy way to feel relaxed and complete your assignments in the comfort of your pajamas at home. Yes, you only pay about $2 extra for the first use with free delivery, but on the app it shows you coupons and sales at the stores on certain foods, so at the end, the total price is still close to what you would’ve paid had you walked or rode to an actual store and then lugged all the food back home.
After this experience, I’m not ashamed to say it – I love Instacart.