Workers returning to offices could mean more trouble for Instacart and other grocery delivery services

• Ordering groceries online is losing appeal for busy workers returning in-person to offices.
• Instead, it's remote workers who are using the services the most, Morning Consult found.
• The results point to a challenge for companies like Instacart.

If you work from home, you're more likely to order groceries online than someone who's commuting to and from work.

That's one of the findings from a recent Morning Consult survey. About 37% of remote workers and 32% of hybrid workers said they did all of their grocery shopping online, Morning Consult reported. But just 19% of employees who reported to an office for the whole week said the same, according to the survey.

Forty percent of in-person workers said that they did "some" of their grocery shopping online. The survey, which was conducted between January and March, surveyed 364 working adults in the US. It asked consumers about their online grocery usage, including both delivery and pick-up orders.

The decline in remote work points to a potential challenge for online grocery services: Before the pandemic, many pitched themselves as time-savers for people who were too busy with work or other obligations to go shopping for food. 

Instacart, for example, said in 2017 that it "enables customers to spend their time on things that really matter to them by giving back the time they would have spent grocery shopping each week."

But Morning Consult's survey suggests that customers with a commute to and from work are less likely than their work-from-home peers to order groceries online, said Emily Moquin, food and beverage analyst at Morning Consult.  

At first glance, it might seem that remote workers have more flexibility to make a weekday errand run like grocery shopping, Moquin said. But many employees still working from home "are doing so because they have other priorities," she said.

Remote workers tend to be high earners and have children, both characteristics that make them more likely to buy food online instead of going into a supermarket.

Then, there's being around when the order arrives, or it's ready to pick up. Customers still need to be home to put milk and produce in the fridge, and working from home makes that easier, Moquin added.

"You're thinking about your schedule for the week, and you're like 'Okay, Wednesday's my at-home day, so I'll make sure I do my shopping on Tuesday, so I'm there for Wednesday delivery,'" Moquin said.

Online grocery services prospered during the early months of the pandemic as many consumers spent more time working and hanging out at home. Online transactions grew to 11% of grocery sales, up from just a few percentage points several years earlier.

Many of the companies hoped that the habit of buying groceries online would stick around even as people returned to in-person work, school, and other activities.

But the growth of online grocery purchases has slowed. Startups promising grocery delivery in 30 minutes or less have closed up shop or scaled back. Instacart, meanwhile, has put off its planned IPO and laid off staff.

Part of the explanation is consumers returning to their pre-pandemic routines. Many employees with office jobs have been called back to their physical desks for all or part of the work week, meaning less time spent at home. 

Consumers are also dealing with rising food prices. That has made it harder to justify spending even more on delivery fees, tips for drivers, and the other costs typically associated with ordering groceries online.