Note: There are affiliate links which benefit me and with Instacart both of us.
We are a “shop local, think global” family and so always recommend shopping locally. However, our ‘regular’ grocery store may not have a particular ingredient and no one has time to drive all over the county to find it. Never speak with your favorite store manager. You would be amazed how often that works = particularly in today’s competitive environment.
Using one of my often hard to find ingredients: Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten
If you would like to search without giving up too much personal details, your first step will be to look up the street address of your nearest Post Office. plug in your zip code and copy the address
The following links includes codes which may, if you buy something benefit us both. If it just makes your life easier by helping support local business without gallivanting all over – that is fine with me too.
next go to Instacart https://www.instacart.com/?code=WCARR1801EE
You will need to supply an address, so be ready to paste the Post Office address for privacy or use your own “if you don’t care” then just use your own.
Once you save the address, to Instacart will display a search bar (and a list of various stores served in your area.
Type in the ingredient – for example “Vital Wheat Gluten” hit return and poof, InstaCart will show you the stores in your area have be listed Vital Wheat Gluten in their on line offerings.
If you are lucky, you will see your regular store. If not, well where’s your spirit of adventure, expand your shopping horizons – visit a new to you location.
You can then click on each listing to compare pricing.
If all else fails, there is always using a search engine like https://duckduckgo.com/ Duck Duck Go or Amazon https://amzn.to/48Bvm6N Where I have a list that includes ingredients always likely to be in my pantry. Caveat: Amazon, but that is increasingly the most expensive option. and quite often you need to look at more than one – the most expensive option is usually listed first.
FRUGAL TIPLET: Instacart has added so many stores, and individual arrangements various quite a bit, for ingredients I always try to find those with “InStore Pricing” or, sometimes using the Retailer “dot com” may give you a better price.
Last but not least, I “threw this together” because of a question in our FB Bread machine group: KBS Bread Maker Tips, Tricks, and Recipes – still needs work, so in you are not fluent in “speaking in Wheat” – your comments and questions are welcome.
I am a customer/user of InstaCart and other grocery delivery services for several years. One thing I have learned is that Instacart and in-store employee shoppers are not mind readers. It has been my experience that IF I take the time to fill in the BOTH the Replacement and PREFERENCE details for each item, it increases my chances for a satisfactory result.
They ain’t fancy, but the following screen shots may help you find where to insert your preferences AFTER ADDing to the Cart and BEFORE you “Submit Order” Once an order has been submitted, it is my experience I can only ADD new items or REMOVE an item and then ONLY I get it done before Shopping Begins. After that, changes must be made thru CHAT.
There are seem to be TWO places where you can edit your order and add Replacement & Instructions for each item. The first is when you edit as you order – look for the cart icon followed by a number (that number might be confusing – it is the number of different items, not the quantity you choose) This usually located at the top of the page your right as you look at the screen. This will bring up a list of the items you have ordered and you can then adjust quantity, remove, and Insert YOUR Replacement Preferences AND Instructions
NOTE: this is a screen where it is easiest to adjust quantity – click on the quantity shown and it will allow you to add or subtract as you wish.
When you click on preferences, it brings up the “Your Preferences” Screen – usually with either what you have chosen in the past for replacement and instructions – or you can edit as needed. ALWAYS check the replacement is something you want. Because if you have not completed it before, you might just find some less than happy substitutions.
The good news is that “most of the time” Instacart seems to save the Replacement & Instructions with the product. If it is something you are likely to buy often, be sure to favorite. The bad news is that it is a pain to get back to the cart listing, but less so than if you have to do it from the Checkout Page.
The second opportunity to add your Replacement and Preferences are when you Go To Checkout Although sometimes tedious, I ALWAYS do this step because – well the “APP” can be less than perfect and if I don’t do my part, it will not be the shoppers fault if I don’t get what I want.
Below is part of the Check Out Page. It is where you can change/add an address, select a different available delivery time frame. Create DETAILED (and mine are) Delivery instructions, Insert a telephone number for the shopper to reach you (I know it says Mobile, but remember, I don’t have one and so it has my landline.) Choose payment options and last but not least Click the down arrow for review and adjust your selection of items, replacement and detailed instruction. Note: It does not seem to be possible to add an item from this page – but that is another blog entry to be done.
When you select the down arrow for the items, it will bring up your items in a page that looks like this And now comes the really annoyingly tedious and extremely non-intuitive part –
First, I have since fixed the contradictory instructions thanks to one of my favorite shoppers (he has shopped for me at several dozen times)
When you click on either Replacement OR Instructions It takes you to the PRODUCT/ITEM Page you will have to scroll down past all the almost never acceptable “Picked for You” and “Related” Items
Till you get to this one.
TEDIUM = whilst air turns blue as you berate yourself for not checking from Cart page which is slightly less annoying, you will need to go back to the CART page, Go to Check out and then go thru the check out steps (where hopefully InstaCart has “remembered” all the stuff you typed before.
Be sure to check that the section with total, Delivery & Service charges look correct and yes, be sure you have included an appropriate tip according to your means. But tipping is a topic for another day.
Things can change so CAVEAT EMPTOR – this is just what is working for Wheat at this time (22-Aug-2021)
On Topic Comments are always welcomed of find me most often: Facebook Profile: Wheat Carr GAB Profile: Wheat M Carr @wheat GAB group: Food Craft – Making and Methods Other Social Media – almost never, but always using my Real, says so on my birth certificate, name: wheat or Wheat Carr or Wheat M Carr
Every ALDI Aficionado knows the pain of weekly food finds disappearing until the next time… NOTE: since the ratio is about 3 bars per tin, an excellent reason to try more than one flavor of the wonderful Moser Roth bars. STICKER SHOCK: At ALDI via Instacart the price is $2.19 each for the Moser Roth. on Amazon it was $12 for two.
This usually located at the top of the page your right as you look at the screen. 
