Polite Paradise

For those of you who are fascinated with my weekly grocery delivery dramas... (Okay, it's probably just me.)

Last week I placed the order Tuesday for a Thursday delivery. It's supposed to be same-day delivery, but there's been some kind of staffing crisis lately (mentioned on the "Accomplished Something" thread). Fortunately, my schedule is stable enough that I can place orders days in advance, if that's the new normal. Anyway, the guy did come on Thursday (a little late, but there was a warning that he was running behind). He said he couldn't find a place to park, and could I come down and get the groceries? I really hate that. Look, if I was fine with going out in the cold and lugging heavy bags of groceries around... I wouldn't be paying a service to do it for me! But at that point I don't feel like I have much of a choice, if I want to get my groceries that I paid for. So I went downstairs with a couple of cloth bags and literally had to go outside, where he put my groceries in my cloth bags and at least carried things to the edge of the elevator for me. Then I had to carry them onto the elevator and from there to my apartment.

When this sort of thing happens I only give half the tip I normally would. But, I still gave him 5 stars and didn't comment on it when rating the delivery. I know that's not really the best way to do things. If it was going to be the same couple of people who did the deliveries, I like to think I would make it clear what I expect every time, but it's almost always someone different and I don't know what kind of pressure or support they get from the company--like personally I think he could have parked farther away and walked my groceries up to my door, but maybe since he was already running late, he felt he didn't have time to do that without getting knocked somehow by the company. Or maybe the company doesn't reimburse if they have to feed a parking meter. I just don't know.

Anyway, last night (Thurs) I got another grocery delivery, which I had also placed on Tuesday. This time it was a girl, who did a great job while at the store, but I really had to hold her hand during the delivery. First she couldn't find the entrance to my building, then she couldn't figure out how to get in. So I'm waiting, and she finally texts, "What do I do next?" So I thought she was still having trouble getting into our secure lobby and I sent her those instructions for the 3rd time. And she's like, "No, I already did that. I'm in the lobby." So I'm like, "Get on the elevator"! I mean, most people can figure it out from that point! It's a really tiny lobby with nothing but mailboxes, the elevator, and the door to the stairs. Then she asked what floor so I told her, but I'm thinking, you should know where you're going, at least, no one's ever had to ask me that before. And then she came right to my door, so she knew my apartment number, which starts with the floor number, but I guess she didn't put those two things together? And when I answered the door she was really not happy--she didn't say anything at all to me until she was leaving and then kind of tossed over her shoulder, "Have a good night!" Very different demeanor than anyone else who's ever delivered, who at least make an attempt at being courteous. But hey, she got it up to the door so she got the full tip!

I think it would be very interesting to have a scientific study of the issues involved with grocery delivery, but I feel like this company probably views its workers as disposable (about 75% college students, I would say). It's Instacart, a third-party site that does the deliveries for various grocery store chains that don't have their own setup--comparable to GrubHub or something, that delivers food from restaurants that don't do delivery themselves, I think. By and large I'm really happy with it, because I loathe grocery shopping with a fiery passion and even thinking about going back to it makes me hyperventilate a little bit. So I just have to put up with some quirks.

I like the idea of grocery shopping. Like, I think it's fun to browse in a new or strange store and see what they have, and get something if I want it. But for my regular weekly trip, it's this mission, for lack of a better word--get in, get these items, stand in line, carry everything to the car, get home, carry everything upstairs. There always seem to be too many people getting in my way at the store, the line is always really long, I always seem to be getting more than I thought (even though I have a list) and it's always a lot heavier. Just the stress of trying to transfer all the bags from the cart to the car, without spilling anything, especially if another car has parked really close to me and it's raining or cold... I feel my blood pressure rise just thinking about it. I've probably built it up in my mind too much and if I had to go back to shopping myself I would just work hard to make it a more positive experience, but now that I've tasted someone bringing my groceries right to my door, I don't want to go back!

The Instacart system has a lot of advantages, in my opinion. It's great if you don't have a car; if you hate dealing with people, traffic, weather; if you can't carry heavy stuff (although as seen, you might have to carry it a little ways, although I suppose if you really couldn't, you could just say that and tell the shopper to figure it out). I can select exactly what items I want from their website (like shopping on Amazon), and take the time to browse, check the nutritional info, compare prices, etc..

Disadvantages: if you like browsing around a physical store to find things, or you're very picky about produce and cuts of meat and such, it's probably not for you. Also, it does cost more. They claim they charge store prices for the actual groceries--I wonder sometimes. Anyway there's a $35 minimum for free* delivery, so you have to hit that at least. (*It's not really free. I pay an annual fee that includes delivery charges--it's like Amazon Prime's "free" two-day delivery. But, it is a good value since I use it every week. If you don't pay the annual fee, there's a delivery charge each time.) Then the tip to the shopper is an additional fee--I don't shirk on that unless there's a problem with the actual shopper. There's also sometimes a service charge that goes to the company, which they keep changing their policy about. Also, you need to have a stable enough schedule that you can be home and interrupted during a fairly broad window, say two hours; in addition to the actual delivery, you need to be available by text or phone if the shopper has questions at the store, and if they need help finding where you live.

Once there was a big problem with my order--the shopper basically disappeared into thin air, with my stuff, but had marked it as delivered--and I had to call the helpline. The lady placed my order again, with a new shopper, but got stuck on when they should deliver it. "Within two hours" was available and is what I usually choose, but she was like, "No, I want to set it at a specific time, like 8pm to 9pm, so you aren't stuck at home waiting on them." And I'm like, "Lady, I'm not going anywhere tonight. I wouldn't choose tonight for delivery if I had somewhere to be at a certain time." But I guess that might be a problem for some people.

Oh yeah, that's why different methods exist, right? I'm just really excited because I hate grocery shopping so much, and although I do get annoyed at the shoppers sometimes, to me all the hassles are minor compared to the time and effort it takes me to actually shop for myself. I just want people to be aware of the differences, in case they were interested themselves. I know some people use the grocery delivery as a supplement to their usual shopping, and that might be a useful thing to know about.

Fortunately I don't have to be worried about the extra money, and the time is not usually a problem either. I'm literally just at home, trying to get things done but nothing that can't be interrupted by an occasional text (so much better than spending that same amount of time actually at the store and on the road, getting nothing else done). The delivery itself is very quick, like 5min. Most of the time people don't have any trouble delivering--the girl last week was an exceptional case! Considering I get a grocery delivery almost every single week, it usually goes pretty well.

I also have a TINY apartment, so I can't store up things. And, samples don't do it for me anymore because of my restricted diet. A major thing is just the transportation, though. My parents used to take me every week and I always felt like it was such an imposition. (Of course, now my mom's like, "I wish we could go grocery shopping again! I liked getting things from your store they don't have at mine!" ) A lot of people around here take the bus to the store, and while it's nice to know I could get there via bus if I had to, I can't comfortably carry what I need each week on the bus. Plus, that would also take a long time.

Yes, I would absolutely contact the company to find out if it is indeed a change in policy. If so, you can take that into consideration regarding if you want to keep using them or switch to a different service. At least around here, there are a ton of choices. If not, then that's a heads up to them to make sure they train their employees properly.

It seems odd that these delivery people are hesitant to get on the elevator. How does package delivery, say, or food delivery, work in your building? Doesn't Fedex, et al., go on up to the apartment without hesitation?

HenrysMom, usually I feel exactly the same way about the service, and I do tip 20% normally, if they make it up to my apartment. But for the last month they've really been having problems in my area, lack of personnel or something?

I am curious to find out if there's another grocery delivery service in my area. I used to shop at a particular store chain, and they advertised delivery, and it turned out that was done through Instacart. So I don't know if different stores might use a different service, a rival to Instacart or maybe their own personnel.

I went into my profile and edited the delivery instructions that the shoppers see, explicitly saying to come up in the elevator to my apartment door. At least that might have saved me some time on the last two deliveries! They don't actually set foot inside my apartment, just bring things to the door and hand them over. At least there IS an elevator, and my apartment is pretty close to it!

As for other deliveries, when I got food (like a pizza) delivered, I did expect the person to come up to my apartment door, and tipped less if I had to go downstairs and meet them. But, I do see other people meeting the food deliveries downstairs sometimes, so that seems to vary. There isn't much parking, and some people are quite cavalier about double-parking to run a delivery inside, and others simply won't do it.

Packages is kind of a sore point in our building! The landlord has told me several times that they expect packages to be left at people's doors, because the big delivery companies all have access to our secure building. But, I have also heard from the delivery guys themselves, that sometimes they have so many that delivering them individually takes too long, so they just dump all these packages in the lobby/mail room. Around Christmas you kind of had to kick your way through packages to get to the mailboxes! There are always tons of packages littering the floor there, I don't know why the individuals don't pick them up--maybe they are all misdelivered? Basically my landlord is like, "Ugh, the companies are doing it wrong!" but the landlord won't actually do anything about it, even move/remove excess packages. Like a couple months ago I had a package marked as delivered, but I didn't receive it, and I wondered if it accidentally was sent to the building across the street, which is also owned by my same landlord (and also has a secure entrance that I can't access). But the landlord refused to go look, and started talking about filing a police report for a stolen package and all that. I told Amazon and they refunded my order, no problem. And like two weeks later, the missing package just innocently showed up. So it had not been "stolen," it was just misplaced somewhere until someone actually looked and sorted it out. It's a really great landlord compared to many around here, but as they've gotten bigger over the years they've gotten more impersonal, I think.

I’m surprised that the organic bananas and not-turkey pepperoni got through without them notifying you - it usually pops up as a text when they have to substitute something for you to approve it. 

I’m surprised your building doesn’t have a Hub - it seems to be the trend, albeit a rather annoying one (as far as I’m concerned).

I don't think you sound crazy at all regarding his comments on the interior of your home. I'm a very social outgoing person, so, I'm guessing, sort of opposite of you, and that would also bother me. I don't mind waiters or delivery persons having a friendly conversation or attempting witty banter, but making personal comments is not ok.

I believe there is a line between a comment about something innocuous, say the weather or the traffic, and a comment about me personally, like my appearance or in that same vein, the appearance of my home.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt, it's probably just a lack of experience on his part that makes him think it's ok, as he's maybe trying to make a connection with you or flatter you in some way so that you will give him a good tip and review. But of course, we live in a world where it's also quite feasible that there are more nefarious motives for him peaking into your living space, so yeah, he crossed a line.

Can you write that somehow in your review? Something like, "good service, friendly delivery guy but please don't peak into my home and make inappropriate comments."

Lynn2000, you’ve hit upon the one thing that bugs me about Instacart - that we can’t specify our delivery person.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to tell the delivery person not to park in the gated lot - they could get towed and it’s clear on the other side of the building from my place.  Yet, even with clear directions to park on the street and go to the center pedestrian gate, they keep trying to get in the lot.  If we could specify “I want Jane B or John C ,” it’d save a lot of trouble, because they’d know.  Finally had to take a picture of the gate and building to send to the person every time.

The Hub is an Amazon-based central location to pick up packages.  You enter a code into a screen, and the locker the package is in magically pops open.  The one where I live is clear on the other side of the complex, and with a bad back and knee, getting over there is a weird and wonderful experience.