

Instacart expands its grocery delivery service to Oakland and Berkeley - apoorvamehta
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/05/22/instacart-expands-its-grocery-delivery-service-to-oakland-and-berkeley-at-last/?fromcat=all

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2pasc
I really love Instacart and use them often: they did a great job so far.

What I am consistently amazed at, is how they manage to get press for every
new city or stores added. I mean, they are a successful Company but there are
other cool growing Companies that get new clients or expand to new cities or
launch new products, and we don't hear about them all the time. I don't blame
them for getting press. I blame the press for being so pageviews driven that
they don't deliver news or reporting anymore but press releases or
newsletters' content.

Keep up the good work though!

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avree
I wouldn't look so deep into it. They got one tech blog to pick up the story,
not 'press'. If you e-mail the tips@(techcrunch/thenextweb/theverge) e-mail
with your startup launch, it's actually pretty easy to get the blogs to
syndicate your story.

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2pasc
Fair enough ;-) Congrats on the newest version of the GetAround app...I am a
user ;-)

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nthitz
Awesome! As an East Bay resident this is exactly what I have been waiting for!

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heywoods
Aww. You can't add Oakland or Berkeley & not have Berkeley Bowl as a grocery
store option. =[

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dkl
My wife, who has shopped at Berkeley Bowl for decades, has in the last couple
of years been complaining bitterly about the quality of produce (and the price
for said produce). She's been branching out to other places (farmer's markets,
Trader Joe's, and sometimes Safeway).

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cwhittle
Try Monterey Market for produce. Really good quality and generally less
expensive than Berkeley Bowl, especially for seasonal stuff. But only buy
produce.

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w1ntermute
My main problem with Instacart is that when shopping in person at Safeway, I
can usually get 10-20% savings using my loyalty card. I don't get this benefit
when using Instacart. This by itself makes me very hesitant to use it, even
though my experience with Instacart has been nothing short of amazing (save
for some products not being available, but that's not their fault).

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HorizonXP
I'm not sure how else you expect them to make money and stay in business if
they shouldn't be charging you more. For me, such is the cost of convenience.
If your money is more valuable than your time, then you can continue shopping
at the grocery store yourself. :-)

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w1ntermute
They're already charging a flat rate for shipping. I just want them to be more
transparent in their pricing.

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HorizonXP
While that's certainly fair, and I see your point, I don't see Safeway/Whole
Foods/etc. telling you their profit margins either. The only reason you're
taking issue with Instacart's pricing is because you know the price that you
normally pay/they pay for the goods. :-)

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zachgersh
How does this compare to something like FreshDirect in NYC? Used freshdirect
for a long time and it always felt so amazing. The timing savings always makes
me feel good about paying the higher cost.

I've never felt the need to order my groceries via an app, could have just
been a web experience and I would have been just as interested in using
Instacart. Always wondered why they started with an app.

Hope this expands to LA soon.

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apoorvamehta
LA is coming soon. And, we do have a web app in addition to the iPhone & iPad.

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zachgersh
Excellent.

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Fauntleroy
I used this last week and it worked splendidly. Wish they were a little more
transparent about the $35->free shipping offer being promotional, though.
(After the first order it's $70->free shipping)

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apoorvamehta
Could you please email cs@instacart.com with specifically what you mean
(ideally, screenshots). We try to be very explicit about that but maybe we
missed something. Thank you.

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2pasc
On that. You should be more explicit that CostCo delivery is $9.99 even for
more than $70. I did not find anything about that on your site.

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rdl
Thank you so much!

Please add pickup from Tokyo Fish Market and Berkeley Bowl, both in Berkeley,
and maybe Mollie Stone's.

