Comment by encoderer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by encoderer | Hacker News Reader

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We use instacart, and it's great for the small weekday shopping trip. Maybe in our home we're just more selective grocery shoppers than most, but I would never use them for meat and even much produce. Meat, for example.. I've asked for boneless chicken breasts from the butcher and instead i've gotten prepackaged shrink-wrapped, and recently I requested a single double-cut beef tenderloin and instead got 2 single-cuts. In both cases, InstaCart made amends (50% refund) but I have a meal to cook: I don't want a refund, I want what I ordered.

Another reason we couldn't move totally to IC is how they handle credit cards. We get 6% cashback at grocery stores using the Amex Blue Cash card. (And have a 5% cashback Visa for the stores that don't take Amex). Unfortunately, IC charges come thru as internet services, not grocery. So that's a 6% price increase right off the top, in addition to mark-ups on products and delivery fees.

We purchased their "prime" and will continue to use the service, but i still have the dream of being able to replace all my in-store grocery shopping.

I agree with everything you've said here, and use Instacart weekly.

One thing: in the case of Whole Foods, the chicken breasts in the butcher window are exactly the same as the ones in the shrink-wrap. They just take them out and put them in the window.

The ones in the shrink-wrap are actually more hygienic. :)

Thanks for the feedback. We are working on those issues.

And, trust me, that is our dream as well :)

Please make the credit card MCC thing a priority.

I know Stripe doesn't expose this (yet), but Braintree does.

To counteract that, you should buy $500 gift cards at grocery stores. I got a year of free Amazon Prime by purchasing two $500 gift cards at Giant using my AMEX card. Check out /r/churning on reddit :)

Sure, but one advantage of a credit card is free Net 45 terms. Sucks to lose that.

I'm from abroad. What's this "cashback" thing that I keep reading about? They give you money back onto your credit card, after you paid? Why don't they just give you the discount right away? And what do credit card companies have to do with grocery stores?

The credit card company charges the shop a transaction fee for using the card. The retailers allow this as it increases the chance of someone making a purchase, especially bigger purchases.

The credit card company sets out in it's terms of business that the shop must not have a surcharge, and must charge the list price for good paid for by credit card. This is so that using a card is attractive to the customer.

The card fees can be quite high. High enough for there to be more money than the transaction really costs, and the credit card company can then offer some of this money back to customer to entice them to use this card rather than some other card that doesn't offer cash back.

The end result is that customers who pay cash are subsidising the prices of those who pay by card.

It's hard to break the cycle because if a shop doesn't offer payment by card, not many people will shop there as people don't carry much cash.

Amex have the highest fees. I don't know why shops even allow amex.

Shops allow Amex because wealthy people use Amex. Not exclusively of course, and I certainly don't consider myself wealthy. But Amex cardholders charge far more than the industry average.

Also it's not just the ppl paying with cash subsidizing card usage. Cards that offer >1% cashback are usually more difficult to get, and targeted toward higher-spenders. These benefits are subsidized by the people using cards with no benefits.

> I don't know why shops even allow amex.

Because some shops _do_ have an Amex, and as an Amex holder, I prefer stores that take Amex to ones that don't.

Thanks!

I work at Stripe (we handle credit card payments for Instacart). Have you checked the cashback situation recently? AFAIK, IC charges have been coming through as groceries for at least a few months now. Happy to dig further if you'd like to email me at anurag@stripe.com.

Oh, awesome. Thank you for mentioning this. Looking on Amex, I can see recent charges coming thru as Grocery, starting in October it looks like?

AFAIK, I won't be able to see if Amex gives 6% on these until my statement cuts in Dec (it's done in arrears), so I'll watch for that later this month.

Thanks, and thanks for fixing this! Is this just a special accommodation for InstaCart? These industry-specific rewards are common across many verticals.

Good to know! The fix isn't specific to Instacart though; industry-specific settings now apply to all Stripe merchants, and have for a while. Hope Amex comes through on the cashback!

I used to use them weekly, but being consistently late, and also consistently only bringing ~75% of what I ordered, I went back to shopping myself. It didn't help getting mouldy produce, or defrosted frozen stuff, or incorrect items on a regular basis.

That's so interesting. I only use Instacart for meat. I get Costco meat by the freezerful every three months and it works great.

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