I was interested in trying out the grocery delivery program that Basha’s, the local grocery chain here in Arizona offers. It was great to find that they offered the delivery here in Flagstaff. Signing up was very easy, and they offered free delivery for my first order. They also offered a trial of EXPRESS, which is a membership program that offers unlimited FREE deliveries (orders of $35 or more), and avoiding higher fees during prime delivery times. I will talk more about EXPRESS at the end of this review.
Placing the order took a little bit of time, but I am sure if I order the same items over and over, the system will start to recognize or even suggest items that I order frequently. Fro now, I had to search for the items that I wanted. I had received a sale advert on Wednesday, and they had a special on boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.49 (regularly $2.99), after a few searches, I added the words “value pack” and the special item came up on the list for me to order. I decided to get some extra ingredients, as I am planning to make chicken enchiladas with it, so I search for enchilada sauces. I liked the way it showed what was one sale. Sorting the items by “lowest price” did not automatically give you the sale price. It sorted it by the regular price. If the regular price was $2.99, but the sale price was $0.99, the item would appear below anything with a lower regular price, but it would show the sale price.
Once I placed my order, they system will give you updates, and if you add a cell phone number, they will text you with updates as well. The instacart system has several flaws, which became evident as my shopping specialist (my term, they referred to her as my Instacart Shopper) messaged me a few times trying to verify exactly what I was wanting. I ordered two pounds of sliced deli ham from the deli. She asked specifically which deli ham I wanted. My only response was the $3.99 ham. Having been in the store several times and purchased this, it was the only ham listed at $3.99 that they had. Having purchased this ham in the past, what I received was not the ham I was expecting, but was actually a higher quality ham. This error was good for me. The other issue that the shopping specialist had was the boneless skinless chicken breasts. She was looking at the picture that went with the order, and even in the weekly advertisement, they tend to use cooked items in the pictures, so she was asking if the item I was looking for was precooked or raw. I ended up sending a picture of the advert for her to see. The one on the left is the advert and the one on the right is what Basha’s Instacart showed.
Overall, the experience was not bad. Becoming more familiar with the ordering system will take some time, but that is how all new technology is these days.
FREE DELIVERY: When they offered the free delivery and two weeks of free EXPRESS, I was informed that the delivery fee was $5.99 per delivery. For the next two weeks (Until July 26th), I get that for free. What they didn’t say at the beginning and I found out at the end (I should have read everything), was that there is also a service charge of $2.48, which is approximately 5% of the total order. I was also given a suggested tip amount of 5% for my delivery driver (happened to be my shopping specialist which I gave a larger tip)
EXPRESS: Express is a yearly subscription that is billed annually at $149. If you work it to where you get a deliver more than every two weeks, the membership will pay for itself in saved delivery fees.
If you have any questions of me about my experience, please feel free to contact me.