Trader Joe’s is one of the few major grocery stores in the United States that does not dabble with Instacart. People hate this. After all, it does make it difficult to buy products from Trader Joe’s if you can’t get into the store. But, why doesn’t Trader Joe’s do Instacart?
Trader Joe’s likely doesn’t deal with Instacart due to the size of their stores. There are a lot of people in their stores and the stores are often quite small. They probably don’t want a ton of delivery drivers turning up and making huge purchases all the time. It would fill up their parking lots.
We do want to expand upon this a little bit, so read on!
Trader Joe’s ; Instacart: An Introduction
Trader Joe’s is a major grocery chain in the United States. This is a company that specializes in offering high-quality products at low prices.
About 95% of the products that you will find in a Trader Joe’s store will have been branded with the Trader Joe’s brand (or one of the brands that they own).
Instacart is a delivery service. It is an app and web-based. Instacart allows grocery stores to sign up for their services.
When a customer places an order through Instacart, one of the Instacart professional shoppers will head into a store, pick up the products, and then deliver it. This has prevented many grocery stores from needing their own delivery service.
Trader Joe’s Participation in Instacart
At the time of writing, Trader Joe’s does not offer Instacart delivery services in any way, shape, or form.
It doesn’t matter which store you are shopping at with Trader Joe’s, you are never going to be able to order through Instacart.
Due to the way in which the Trader Joe’s business model operates, we seriously doubt that this is something that they are going to be offering in the near future too.
Reasons Why Trader Joe’s May Not Offer Instacart Delivery
We can only speculate as to why Trader Joe’s does not offer Instacart delivery, but this speculation will be rooted in knowledge about how the Trader Joe’s business model works.
Firstly, Trader Joe’s stores are incredibly busy as it is. If you have ever been into a Trader Joe’s store then you would know that they are very cramped.
If Trader Joe’s started to work with services such as Instacart then their stores would get insanely busy. There would barely be any space to move about.
We don’t know if you remember, but during the pandemic, most Trader Joe’s stores would only let in around 15 people at a time.
The queues were already long enough. Now, imagine if you had introduced delivery drivers to this queue.
It would have taken hours upon hours to get into a Trader Joe’s store. It was at this point that Trader Joe’s likely decided that they did not want to be that sort of business.
You should also remember that Instacart works by taking a cut of the sale from the company. Trader Joe’s has very low prices as it is.
They probably cannot afford to give a big cut of the sale to Instacart. Remember, Trader Joe’s is a company known for being one of the more affordable companies when it comes to high-quality products.
In addition to this, Trader Joe’s does discontinue products in their range very regularly. This means that the Trader Joe’s listing on Instacart would be out of date very quickly.
Finally, if a ton of people are ordering online, then Trader Joe’s would likely need to have more staff. This is because products will disappear from their shelves incredibly quickly and they would forever be restocking.
We are sure that Trader Joe’s is content with the way that they are doing business right now. Sure, they would probably make a little bit more cash offering Instacart, but that extra cash will be at the sacrifice of the customer experience, which is probably the last thing that Trader Joe’s really wants to be dealing with.
While they are cheap, they have always been about the customer in the way they run their business. There are hundreds of other stores throughout the United States that do work with Instacart. This includes Costco and Walmart.
Tips For Obtaining Delivery From Trader Joe’s
Unfortunately, there are no delivery options for Trader Joe’s at all.
The company has taken a stance that they will not be included on any delivery apps. This means that you will not find them on Instacart, Postmates, or any other similar app.
While you may find some gig-based apps with workers that could go into Trader Joe’s for you, these are exceedingly rare as they do not pay a whole lot of cash.
Unfortunately, unless you want to pay a premium from one of the Trader Joe’s resellers, your only option is to head into the store.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can You Order Stuff Online From Trader Joe’s?
No. While you can browse Trader Joe’s products online, you cannot order online. This is because they have no delivery service to customers and they do not have the staff to walk around their stores to pick the products up.
Why Doesn’t Trader Joe’s Do Curbside?
Trader Joe’s is able to offer such great prices by keeping staffing to the minimum. This means that they cannot offer curbside.
There simply isn’t enough people working in any of the Trader Joe’s stores for them to be able to offer curbside delivery.
Final Thoughts
Trader Joe’s does not do Instacart. They will never offer Instacart in their stores.
This is likely because they do not want the huge influx of delivery drivers that would stand in the way of their customers. They also do not wish to raise their prices to accommodate the extra cut that services like Instacart require.
Unfortunately, there is no way to order Trader Joe’s online. You can only pick up products by heading into one of their stores.
