My boyfriend thinks it's a nearly universal 5% on safeway items. I shop at Trader Joe's a lot, and I notice varying margins on the items I always get (what is nearly universally $2.99 on milk in multiple locations I go to all over CA is $3.89 on instacart) but the minimum is generally 5-10%. Some items seem to be loss leaders: Instacart occasionally offers Oreos from Safeway for $2.xx which kill me because I love Oreos, especially since they're more like $4 in the market. Right now they're just over $4.
Having seen people around the nearby Safeway wearing Instacart shirts, I'm pretty sure they're walking through the store collecting multiple carts worth of orders. It would be fantastic if they had a warehouse as you mention, but I don't think that's happening as long as they have multiple supermarket options available.
I wish the general delivery pricing scheme were more transparent though - I've now discovered the "under $30" delivery fee and the "free delivery for $60+" seems to be standard, and I have to add enough items to figure out what 1 hour shopping costs.
Having seen people around the nearby Safeway wearing Instacart shirts, I'm pretty sure they're walking through the store collecting multiple carts worth of orders. It would be fantastic if they had a warehouse as you mention, but I don't think that's happening as long as they have multiple supermarket options available.
I wish the general delivery pricing scheme were more transparent though - I've now discovered the "under $30" delivery fee and the "free delivery for $60+" seems to be standard, and I have to add enough items to figure out what 1 hour shopping costs.