Instacart shopper left in disbelief after comparing the cost of everyday groceries from 2019 to today with STAGGERING results
- TikTok creator DadHat revisited the 'first' order he had ever placed on Instacart
- In 2019, he requested a simple order of 12 grocery items from a local Publix store
- Back then, it had cost him $35.19 - but the price is now drastically different
A shopper has been left shocked after comparing the cost of groceries from 2019 to today with staggering results.
TikTok creator DadHat, who uses the handle @roomesc, decided to revisit the 'first' order he had ever placed on Instacart - a grocery delivery service - from five years ago.
In October 2019, he had requested a simple order of 12 grocery items from a local Publix store.
His order included a 24 pack of bottled water, smoked salmon, bagels, cream cheese, capers, two tomatoes, one lemon, one red onion, vanilla Pepsi, cookie dough, two-pound bag of rice, and a 3.5-pound bag of dog food.
Back then, it had cost him $35.19 for 12 items - but this was drastically different from today's total cost.
TikTok creator DadHat, who uses the handle @roomesc , decided to revisit the 'first' order he had ever placed on Instacart - a grocery delivery service - from five years ago
As an experiment, DadHat tried putting an order in for the same items - or their rough equivalents - as he had in 2019 (stock image)
This time around? The total came out to roughly $62.64 - nearly twice the price - after taking into account the different-sized portion of pre-packaged smoked salmon.
The smoked salmon also saw the most marked jump in price, from $7.79 for one, eight ounce package, to $19.89 for three, three-ounce packages.
The content creator rounded down slightly to make up for the one-ounce difference in product between his 2019 and 2024 orders, tabulating the smoked salmon at $17.68.
He also swapped in the 12-pack of 12 oz. cherry Pepsi because they didn't have vanilla in stock.
'In any case, the price had gone up from $6.09 to $10.29.
Viewers flooded the comments to commiserate with the frustration of the suddenly heightened price points for basic grocery items.
'Price gouging at its finest,' one wrote.
'I cried yesterday. Spent $103.00 on 12 items,' a second added.
His order included a 24 pack of bottled water, smoked salmon, bagels, cream cheese, capers, two tomatoes, one lemon, one red onion, vanilla Pepsi, cookie dough, two-pound bag of rice, and a 3.5-pound bag of dog food
When he replicated the Instacart order, from Publix, the total came out to a whopping $62.64
Viewers flooded the comments to commiserate with the frustration of the suddenly heightened price points for basic grocery items
'This morning I bought bread, milk, chips, and salsa (chose the cheapest version of each item)… 25 dollars,' a third described.
Many further pointed out that retailers list higher prices on Instacart than they do for products bought straight off the shelf.
A 2023 article on Business Insider reported that only a third of retailers that offer delivery services through Instacart list products at the same price that they do in the store.
Apparently, most retailers hike up the Instacart prices fairly significantly.
Still, DadHat is far from the only consumer who has observed a huge uptick in pricing for standard grocery fare compared to a few years ago.
As DailyMail.com previously reported, one man, known as Sewerlidd on TikTok, compared a Walmart receipt from 2022 to one with the same items in 2024, and discovered the cost had nearly quadrupled.
