[efields]

First: Congratulations all around. Very exciting to get that much support and validation.

Second: As much as any of us can make comprehensive grocery lists, there's a serendipity to the grocery runs that I'm not ready to give up. Snap decisions can be enablers for future meals. "I need 1 lb. of chicken breast but, hey, wait… maybe I'll get 2 lb. and make double and freeze the rest for next week?" … "Oh shit… tomato paste! Definitely used the last of that a couple days ago; better get some more." It was a no-brainer to ditch the video rental store, but you can't browse fresh groceries from an Apple TV.

Third: I'm not willing to trust a stranger to pick out an avocado that's just the right ripeness for my purposes, nor do I want to type out just how ripe I want my avocado this time.

EDIT: clarity

[maxgaudin]

That's a good point but I personally hate spending 45 mins plus in the grocery store and would love to have someone bring it to my door. I find it to be a huge waste of time. If the ripeness of your avocado is that important to you then you'll still be one of those taking the trip to the store.

One important advantage instacart has over the in-store experience is the filtering and sorting of goods. The amount of toilet paper or cereal to choose from is absurd.

EDIT: After looking at the web app there appears to be no sorting/filtering capabilities but only search. Bummer.

[silencio]

> One important advantage instacart has over the in-store experience is the filtering and sorting of goods.

That's assuming you get what you ordered in the first place, and ripeness of an avocado is barely touching on these problems.

My boyfriend has been experimenting with ordering cat food from various sources in SF. Necessary backstory: regular Fancy Feast comes in two categories of textures: Classic which is a pâté style, and everything else (Flaked, Grilled, Sliced...) which is anything but. Our cat exclusively eats non-pâté food. So we order a 24 can box of flaked/grilled/sliced beef+poultry or seafood, and what shows up at the door? Instacart, Postmates, and Google Shopping Express all got it wrong (I bet AmazonFresh will too when it starts up here) - in fact, I can't think of a single time a person got the cat food order _right_ even though when we go shopping on our own knowing "not classic" we never have a problem reading the boxes clearly labeled as such... To their credit they all resolved the problem, but.. both of us and our roommate order from all three services all the time and something always gets screwed up like that.

If you can live with that, then awesome. We mostly do for convenience's sake, until we get key limes as a substitute for persian limes meant for margaritas.

[HorizonXP]

Considering that Instacart allows you to add notes to your order, or even to an individual item, I'm sure this is something that can be easily resolved. Most shoppers at Instacart have paid attention to the notes, which has been great. I've run into situations where the item I ordered is not available, so they need to replace it with another item. Usually I add a note to my order that tells the shopper to always pick the smaller & cheaper substitution, since I live on my own and only cook 2 days out of the week. So my personal experience has been that it works well, but I can see how there might be variability in experiences amongst others.