Grocery and Restaurant delivery services

Parent Cafe
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We are about to watch our grandkid in Echo Park (Los Angeles area) California while D and SIL are traveling. While we have not used Instacart since 2020 during covid in Colorado, I’d like to get some options for grocery deliveries and restaurants. They have a Von’s which is a Safeway, and a Sprouts. Looks like Von’s has both instacart and their own delivery. Sprouts may use instacart.

In general what delivery service do you use for groceries and what one for restaurants? Any thing I should be aware of?

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Not at all familiar with the Los Angeles area, I do remember reading a Michael Connelly book called Echo Park lol

We as a rule use the grocery store service and not instacart as I feel it’s cheaper. We (and our kids) usually do pick up at the store. Sometimes Amazon delivery if they offer it. I do use Costco at times.

As far as restaurant delivery, Uber Eats. My daughter has a pass from her credit card. Maybe your credit card offers something similar. Or dash pass from door dash. I know they order a lot of delivery which I don’t do.

Hopefully others will have better ideas who live in the general area.

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Since in Colorado we live 2 hrs away, we only get shipping from Costco. I had no idea they have groceries delivery! Looks like in Echo Park- Costco uses instacart.

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I generally choose whatever delivery service offers the best deal/value, of which they are many. This weekend, I’ll probably choose Instacart via Grubhub since Grubhub has “Gold Days” on weekends this month. On May 2-3, the deal was $50 off a $100+ order. On May 9-10, the deal was $50 off a $150+ order, with Costco excluded. With Costco not available, I chose Walmart and got my total up by purchasing home goods and clothing, in addition to groceries.

Something to be aware of is fees. All the delivery services have fees, but the specific fees are highly variable. For example, if you order Walmart via Instacart, there are store prices + a 8% service fee. However, if you order Costco via Instacart, all prices are marked up by a little over 10% over shopping in store, in addition to service fee. This partially relates to Costco giving you a reason to choose Costco’s Sameday (powered by Instacart) instead of standard Instacart. Both have mark ups, but Sameday is lower. Check the specific fees before placing an order.

The delivery services that have the highest fees also often are the ones that give the largest discounts. This makes the total cost sort of like a sliding scale where they can charge more for customers willing to pay more and less for customers that will only order when prices are lower. In addition to discounts offered directly from the delivery service, you can often discount further by purchasing with gift cards. For example, Costco used to sell Uber Eats and Instacart gift cards at 20% off. Due to selling out immediately and gift card buyers reselling, Costco no longer does this, but you can still get discounted gift cards elsewhere.

Another thing to be aware of is substitutes and shopper notes. Grocers vary in how accurately their inventory is listed on the delivery service website. With some grocers, items being out of stock is quite common, so it’s good to decide how you want to handle being out of stock beforehand. All delivery services I have seen give you the option of either choosing a specific substitute, letting shopper choose a substitute, or refunding if not available. You can add further comments in shopper notes, for things like selecting fruit.

When the person is doing shopping, it’s good to have your phone available and check texts that you receive. The shopper may ask questions or want you to confirm substitutes.

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What an insane waste of money. BITD at Wisconsin delivery was done by the restaurant and the charge was 0 or nominal. Famed local radical Ken Mate was the delivery guy for Ella’s Deli. By goto place. Always gave me a chuckle that this scary radical was bringing me a Rachel for $1.00. Good times when -10 outside.

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I’m not familiar with the Wisconsin restaurant, but if you have the option for near $0 cost delivery in -10 weather at the restaurant you prefer, go for it. I expect they make up for the delivery cost indirectly, such as having higher markup on their in-restaurant prices. In my area free delivery is the rare exception, rather than the norm.

The rapid increase in popularity of grocery and restaurant delivery services in recent years has created the option to deliver from the overwhelming majority of restaurants. Not having a way to get delivery has become the rare exception. The delivery services are a for-profit business, so they need to charge for their services. However, as noted in my post, it’s possible for particular customers to get lower net prices than in-store, if they only order when deals/discounts are available that are larger than the fees.

My average annual food expense has dropped by ~30% over previous years. The primary reason for this decrease was switching to ordering the bulk of groceries from delivery instead of shopping in store. In addition to cost savings, I enjoy the time and effort savings, as well as having the option to shop at stores that are further away than I’d like to drive or are a pain to shop in store.

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If unfamiliar with the area, can you ask the parents what services they use out there?

For food delivery we find that different places use different delivery services so we decide what we want to eat and use whatever delivery service is associated with that reataurant. So a long way of saying I’d find the restaurants the family likes and go from there.

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H and I don’t use grocery or restaurant delivery. I don’t mind going to the grocery store and I’ll admit, I HATE figuring out the restaurant delivery process. Which one does this restaurant use? How long will it take? I hate the food mark up! I’d just rather cook it on occasion we pick something up if one of us is out. It’s weirdly something I just don’t have the mental will to figure out!

That said, when the kids are home they will order food for us all and it’s usually DoorDash. And D1 and her husband will on occasion do grocery pick up, always curbside.

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We are going to be there with a one year old and a puppy (ours). I figure for a few days we are going to be very busy and instead of driving to get grocery pickup and restaurant take out maybe we should try out delivery. The only delivery I’ve ever done is pizza. At home we do groceries almost exclusively pickup. I figure I should probably learn some new things or at least be ready in case.

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Regarding the specific grocers and delivery; Vons, Safeway, Albertsons, and many others are all owned by the same parent company. They are similar, but not identical. In most areas, Vons has their own delivery service. All the major grocery delivery services also support Vons including Instacart, Uber Eats, and Door Dash. All the major delivery services also support Sprouts, as well as other major grocers.

If you have an account with any of these delivery services, it will list what grocers are supported, and I expect the list of supported grocers will be far more than just the 2 nearest grocers you listed. For example, if I change my Instacart deliver address to near the Vons/Sprouts in Echo Park, it lists the following grocers all being in delivery range – Albertsons, Aldi, Blackjack Market, Bristol Farms, California Market, Costco, Costco Business Center, El Super, Food4Less, Fresco Community Market, Gelson’s, Grocery Outlet, Lazy Acres, Ralphs, Sam’s Club, Sprouts, Stater Bros, Super King, Superior Grocers, Target, Tokyo Central, Vons, Walmart, and ~20 others.

I also live in SoCal, in an area with a similar nearby grocer list. If you aren’t familiar, Sprouts is a specialty store that emphasizes natural, organic, and produce; often at higher prices than elsewhere. It does not have a markup above sticker price on Instacart. Vons does have a markup above sticker price on Instacart or other delivery services. However, Vons does not offer a markup on their store delivery service, which is likely to lead to a lower net price if you are purchasing without an Instacart x% off coupon or discounted gift cards.

Most grocery delivery services will give you a free trial to test them out and find which one(s) you prefer, often combined with a 30-50% your order type deal.

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Very helpful @Data10

I think it’s good to try new things. You never know when you are going to need a new service or like a new way of doing things.

My area also has limited delivery options.

The times I’ve tried to get an elderly parent to even try to get things delivered…

Have fun with your grandson, I bet he’s going to love the puppy!

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Every restaurant has a doordash-ubereats-etc. sticker in the window here. I rarely have food delivered but I call the restaurant directly for free delivery and tip the deliverer generously.

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