It seems delivered grocery enthusiasts will soon be digging a bit deeper in their wallets to pay for the privilege of avoiding the supermarket and the terrifying realness of human interaction. Instacart has announced it will be charging more to deliver groceries.
Quite a bit more actually.
As of now, Instacart charges a little under $4 per delivery; that fee is jumping up by 50 percent to just under $6 per delivery. The two-hour (or scheduled) delivery time will remain unchanged.
The price increase comes on top of a price hike for the Instacart Express Service, which offers users the option of paying a flat annual subscription fee for free, two-hour deliveries and pickups for orders over $35. On Jan. 4, the cost of that service will bump up to a little under $150, from about $100.
The increases come as it seems Instacart is looking to generate some additional capital; Re/code recently reported that various internal sources are saying that the firm has started laying off recruiters. As of the firm’s last funding round, which brought its valuation to around $2 billion, Instacart was reporting 100 employees and 1,000 personal shoppers. For its own part, Instacart explains the changes as a response to “changing market conditions” in its explanation for the pricing changes.
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