No, I wouldn’t perform that calculation exactly and explicitly - but I absolutely think about my purchasing decisions in that way. I can give you ballpark estimates of how valuable my time is, how much time it takes and how much it costs to physically go to the grocery store, etc., and give you a ballpark breakeven point. I’d probably pay $20 for a grocery delivery, but I probably wouldn’t pay $50. But I have no idea where the all-in cost of the service actually falls, so I can’t compare. And I do hold other products and services to that same standard - for example, I regularly compare prices between retailers, except for trivial purchases for which comparison shopping isn’t likely to be worth my time.
As for the source of the markups, that really doesn’t matter to me. I care about the total difference in cost between using Instacart and going to the grocery store myself, irrespective of who that additional money goes to.
thank you for context, and sorry if i sounded snippy in my response.
i was mainly noting the source for markups as we cannot tell you that delta -- it's up to the stores to tell us what they want to charge online. we do want to be as transparent as possible! ("possible" being the operative word here)
No problem at all - thanks for sharing your perspective. It’s helpful to know that grocery stores themselves are responsible for those markups, not because it affects the value that the service creates for me now, but because it impacts how the service could evolve in the future. If Instacart is currently subject to higher-than-retail prices, there’s even more room for it to potentially benefit from setting up its own warehouses, relationships with wholesalers, etc.
As for the source of the markups, that really doesn’t matter to me. I care about the total difference in cost between using Instacart and going to the grocery store myself, irrespective of who that additional money goes to.