commentary

Behind the jokes about grocery substitutions is a familiar frustration: paying for help and still doing the work

Published October 25, 2026 10:30AM (EDT)

Male Instacart shopper at the supermarket (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP / Getty Images)

When I began using Instacart about five years ago, grocery delivery struck me as an almost preposterous luxury. I hadn’t grown up in a household where paying someone else to do the grocery shopping was a particularly imaginable expense. I’ve only recently come around to purchasing frozen, pre-chopped onions without a small pang of guilt. But the pandemic had made grocery delivery feel sensible, even responsible, and I quickly developed an appreciation for the peculiar pleasure of having someone else navigate the supermarket on my behalf.

For a while, the service justified my enthusiasm. A missing shallot might become a red onion. All-purpose flour might arrive as bread flour .…