I got on the site as a first-time user and entered my zip code. From a list of stores around the area, I pointed it to a grocery store in my neighborhood. Then I started searching for items.
When I saw the prices on the Instacart list, I did a double-take. Turns out there is a margin, and it is at least 20%, if not much more. The reason I noticed this is because I shop at that store every week and am very familiar with the prices of the items I was browsing. Keep in mind I was browsing around 11 am, with a delivery window of 2-3pm, so it wasn't (or shouldn't have been) subject to surge pricing either.
And like you say, the exact margin is hidden, and even the fact that they do have a margin isn't explicitly stated anywhere that I could see. So if I wasn't familiar with the prices at that specific store, I may have just gone with it.
This lack of transparency (and in fact I can go one step further and claim it is purposeful obfuscation) immediately eliminated all my trust in Instacart. I closed the window without completing my order. I have since received three emails from them (in 24 hours) reminding me that I have an incomplete order. Suffice it to say, I have no intention of logging back in, ever.
This is not true. In some stores Instacart offers the same as in-store prices, other it does not.
The same is true of anything one buys on Amazon. Low-cost items that ship with Prime shipping are usually marked up a bit, but I order from Amazon (and Instacart) in spite of this because of the convenience offered.
You can pick a basket of goods in Instacart where the percentage is high, but there are many other baskets where the percentage is low.
I did some casual searching and discovered that they supposedly have page (https://www.instacart.com/store/prices) where they list their markups per store, but it doesn't work for me.
However if you actually go and price this stuff out, it's often 30-50% cheaper at Walmart or Target. I get the convenience factor, but it really adds up when you're talking about daily necessities.
In either case, you have to go seek out the on-premise retail prices, and in fact this is no different than traditional price comparison shopping whereby you learn that different stores have different loss leaders to get people in the door, and if you really want to get the cheapest price you have to shop a lot of different places. I'm not sure whether Amazon's model of centralized distribution with direct delivery has greater economies of scale then the big box store model, but I'm worried people are blinded by Amazon's convenience and don't realize how often the prices are really quite bad.
https://www.amazon.com/Subscribe-Save/b?ie=UTF8&node=5856181...
What stores do they not mark up and how do you know that? What do you mean when you say they're transparent - that they tell you there's no markup?
For me, this isn't just about whether it is "worth it" to not have to shop for groceries, but also whether there is a much cheaper option available through either your grocery store or a non-Instacart personal shopper.
It boggles my mind that people are paying this much for the privilege of being able to use an app rather than having to interact a bit more with an actual human being.