
Instacart raises another $150M - smaili
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/05/instacart-is-reportedly-raising-another-150-million/
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subpixel
Last time this happened I said Instacart is a middleman and I didn't see their
opportunity to break out and be a market maker.

But I just realized a potential endgame: Instacart will be Amazon Prime (the
subscription delivery business) without the need to be Amazon (the retail,
global-scale logistics, and marketing company).

Do I want to pay 30% extra on every individual order from local stores to have
Instacart handle the delivery? No.

But would I consider paying something like Amazon Prime fees, every month, to
have 'free' delivery on orders over $100 from my grocery store, Costco, Trader
Joe's, pet store, J. Crew, etc? Very likely.

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abalone
_> would I consider paying something like Amazon Prime fees, every month, to
have 'free' delivery on orders over $100 from my grocery store..._

Wonder if you realize Amazon just rolled out _exactly that_ for Whole Foods.
Free 2-hour delivery for Prime members -- via Prime Now, not Amazon Fresh.
Just launched in SF like a couple weeks ago. And it's a $35 minimum.

Major advantage over Instacart is vastly superior direct integration with
their inventory system. Way less substitutions. Also Prime ($99) is obviously
a higher-value bundle than Instacart Express ($149).

Instacart's opportunity is to serve all the other retailers that are crapping
their collective pants over this. Whether it's a short or long term
opportunity... remains to be seen.

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whistlerbrk
"way less substitutions" we had three no-ask substitutions on our very last
order and arugula that spoiled in two days time. Canceled our trial.
Instacart, at least in NYC, is a mess IMO.

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vadym909
thats what he said. AMZN is better

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ejlangev
I haven't had much luck using Instacart at all. At my last job we would order
normal sized bottled water for our office fairly regularly and 9/10 times they
would bring the tiny bottles. Also they claim on their website that "Fresh
produce picked perfectly" but this couldn't be further from the truth. The
produce you get seems to be chosen at random and is often mediocre or bad.

Seems likely that the shoppers are under too much pressure to rush so that
they can barely earn a living and this leads to much lower quality for the
customer.

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wasd
"Picked perfectly" was appalling to me. Literally the reason we cancelled was
because that there was no concern for what was purchased. We regularly had the
wrong brands, claims that store didn't have the items (they 100% did) or the
produce was extremely over/under ripe.

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slr555
I am interested in other peoples experience with Instacart as a provider.
Their model is interesting but in NYC my anecdotal experience with them has
been really poor. In this market their are several viable alternatives and I
would rank them near at the bottom. I don't intend this as a flame, I really
want to know if they run a tighter ship in other markets that don't have some
of the challenges that NYC presents. Thanks.

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blister
Unfortunately it seems like it's really hit or miss depending on which worker
handles the order.

Some days I get exactly what I ask for really quickly, when other days I'll
have my shopper switching 25% of my requested items with alternates (some of
which are wildly off base).

My biggest frustration is that it seems like the shoppers aren't intimately
familiar with my local grocery stores. I'll request an item that I know
exists, they'll swap it out for something completely different and not what I
want, yet if I personally go to the store, I'll easily find the item I
requested.

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partycoder
I used Instacart in the past, and ran into many issues with them.

There may not be enough stock for one of your choices, and in that case it is
up to the delivery person to pick a replacement.

Even if you ask for no replacements, or to be called in order to pick one over
the phone, they may ring you (just to comply with the requirement of calling
you) and then select a random replacement. If you happen to have allergies or
dietary restrictions: good luck winning the replacement lottery.

I canceled an order because I was notified that 80% of my order wasn't in
stock, and they unilaterally reactivated my order for another time, which
happened to be a time where I was not available.

This is when I finally decided to switch to Amazon Fresh. To this date, I have
had no incidents with them, especially with respect to stock. The only
problems I've had with Fresh are:

\- Once, they delivered slightly late and I got $10 credit for my next order.

\- A few times some items were damaged. Got in contact with customer support
and got a refund for all the damaged items.

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atwebb
My wife just noticed Costco is offering same day shipping, I thought it odd
that they could get the logistics down and it turned out to be Instacart.

I have personally used it but might now so I don't have to brave the
traffic/chaos that a suburban Costco can be. That being said I haven't heard
great things about IC in my area.

It, admittedly just now, strikes me that taking away the headache of Costco
would be pretty welcome. We get mostly the same things and rarely go there
without a list/goals for the trip. Additionally, their sales don't change
often. Making online ordering much easier than going to the grocery and
planning for the week/scoping the sales.

This really turned into a costco related comment.

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whymsicalburito
Are the costco prices based on their warehouse pricing or their online
pricing? I've seen lots of items that are up to 50% cheaper in the store than
what they advertise online.

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mattbeckman
We've done it exactly once (a month ago), and my wife noted that the products
we often get were 25-30% more expensive via delivery.

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atwebb
That was my very first caveat to my wife, be careful b/c it isn't always
obvious where the surcharges for delivery are slipped in.

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hkmurakami
>Instacart, the grocery delivery startup that has a partnership of sorts with
Whole Foods, is raising $150 million in funding, Axios first reported. This is
on top of Instacart’s $200 million raise at a $4.2 billion valuation in
February.

>Instacart has since confirmed the raise, bringing its total Series E round up
to $350 million with a valuation of $4.35 billion.

Read: this is an additional $150M at the same pre-money valuation as the
previously reported raise.

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spraak
To me this looks like investors are wanting Instacart to bulk up in
preparation for competition [1] from Amazon

[1] Amazon has already had their Prime Now service, but I mean their
incorporation of Whole Foods into it.

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prdonahue
This company uses some incredibly scummy dark UX patterns.

See
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13702128](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13702128).

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clay_the_ripper
Agreed. When I discovered this in the app I immediately deleted the app from
my phone. I’ll never use the again. Coupled with the lousy service, instacart
is a no go for me. amazon prime now is a vastly superior product.

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YPCrumble
Hopefully this means I'll get more investor subsidized groceries!

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redorb
They've raised $1 billion dollars. How does their business model survive a
economic downturn ~ where their service might be deemed unneeded?

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WizardOfNomaha
Well they cater to the wealthy. Who else could afford adding 30% to their
grocery bill every week? And the wealthy are better equipped to weather a
downturn than anyone else.

