My wife... Let's call her Karen... used one of those shopping services for a while. During the hard lockdown, when things were not always available, the shopper would message that she couldn't find this or that, and was substituting. My wife, Karen, started to treat the shopper like her personal servant, making her check for this or that alternative substitute, asking a million questions, you know, like I was the one doing the shopping for her.

One time Karen was on the app, and the shopper stopped responding. Instead, Karen kept getting messages: "Out of eggs"; "Out of pickles"; "Out of cheese" - all the things that were already in the basket were being taken out. Karen was flummoxed. "She already had these things in the basket - how can they be out of them???" I had to explain to her that the shopper was actually flipping her the bird. (Think Bill Murray driving his cab in the beginning of Stripes). Apparently, not everyone wants to be micromanaged while out braving Covid doing Karen's dirty work.

We've done our own shopping since then.

you're checking at home -- checking before putting it on the shelf vs in your cart. We had no problem getting credit for the carrots - didn't bother on the buns.

With Instacart at Costco or Shipt at Meijer.

Only a shitty shopper would pick out spoiled or bad food.

We've used Amazon Fresh for a few things, but it has been canned goods and cleaning supplies. I'm too picky about meat and produce to allow someone else to get it for me.

ago,that 90% of the shoppers were from Instacart. It was noticeable in the store. Shoppers were all,young, staring at their phones. A couple seemed to be doing multiple orders at one time using color coded bags for the different orders.