A real Twin Cities shopper goes to the store for you — on a live video call.
Costco, Cub, Target, Trader Joe's, Lunds, anywhere. You see the shelves through their phone, point at what you want, approve every item. Free local delivery for compact-car-sized orders within Minneapolis & St. Paul. Built for seniors, post-surgery recovery, disabled, new parents, and the family members helping them.
Who this is for
Anyone who'd benefit from having a real person — not a faceless gig-app driver — actually shopping with them in real time.
Seniors aging in place
Stay in your own home, keep choosing your own brands, see your shopper face-to-face every week.
Post-surgery recovery
Just got knee surgery, a C-section, or chemo? Don't drag yourself to Cub. We go for you.
Mobility limitations
Chronic illness, MS, ALS, severe arthritis — shop in your living room, not navigating a parking lot.
New parents
Don't wake the baby. Don't pack up two car seats for a 10-item run. We'll grab the diapers + formula.
Family caregivers
Book for your parent in another part of the metro. Pay on your card; they direct the shopping.
Immunocompromised
Skip the crowded store entirely. Live video keeps you in control without the exposure.
How it works
Book a time + pick a store
Tell us when (today, tomorrow, a recurring weekly slot) and which store. The system finds you a Twin Cities shopper.
Join the video call
At your scheduled time, tap the link we text you. No app required — works in any browser. You see what your shopper sees.
Direct the shopping
Point at items. Ask "is the spinach fresh?". Compare brands. They put approved items in a real cart that updates on your screen.
Free local delivery
If your order fits in a compact car, we drop it off — Minneapolis, St. Paul, or close-in suburbs — for free, that day. No surprise fees.
Selectido vs. Instacart / Shipt
If you've used Instacart and felt like the shopper was guessing — or got the wrong brand, an expired item, or a substitution you'd never have picked — that's the gap Selectido fills.
| Selectido | Instacart / Shipt | |
|---|---|---|
| Live video — you see the shelves | ✓ Always | ✗ Never |
| You approve every item | ✓ Real-time | Static list, post-shop substitutions |
| Markup on item prices | ✓ None — you pay store price | 10-30% above store price |
| Service fee | $75/hr session, transparent | $3-9 per order + 5-15% service fee |
| Delivery fee | ✓ Free if it fits in our car (Twin Cities) | $3-15 per delivery |
| Tip | ✓ 100% optional, 100% to shopper | Suggested at 5-20% |
| Preferences saved on file | ✓ Brand, dietary, household notes carry across sessions | Start from scratch each time |
| Stores that don't ship online | ✓ Costco (no membership), Trader Joe's, outlets | Only stores in their network |
| Best for | Homebound residents, $20-300 sessions worth your time | Quick last-mile when you don't care who shops |
Both have a place. Instacart is great when you want speed and don't care who picks the items. Selectido is for when the who matters — the eyes-on, the human contact, the reassurance that someone is actually thinking about your needs while they shop.
The free delivery policy, explained plainly
Free delivery applies when:
- Your address is within Minneapolis, St. Paul, or one of our service-area suburbs (see list below).
- Your order fits comfortably in a compact car — typically 2-6 grocery bags, a few smaller packages, or a flat-pack item. Roughly: if it would fit in the trunk + back seat of a Toyota Corolla, it qualifies.
What doesn't qualify for free delivery (we still come — just with a small fuel-cost charge quoted upfront):
- Furniture, large appliances, anything that needs a truck.
- A full Costco run that takes up an entire SUV.
- Addresses outside our service-area ring (we cover most of the metro for a small mileage fee).
Twin Cities service area
Outside this ring (e.g., Eagan, Plymouth, Woodbury, Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eden Prairie) we still come — typically with a $5-15 fuel-cost charge depending on distance. Quoted before you book, never a surprise.
Twin Cities stores we shop
Anywhere in the metro that's open and accessible. Most-requested:
- Grocery: Cub Foods, Lunds & Byerlys, Kowalski's, Aldi, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Festival Foods
- Big-box: Target, Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club, Menards, Home Depot, Lowe's
- Pharmacy: CVS, Walgreens, Walmart Pharmacy, Costco Pharmacy
- Specialty: Apple Store, Best Buy, REI, Nordstrom, Sephora, Ulta, GameStop
- Local independents: the Wedge Co-op, Mississippi Market, Linden Hills Co-op, Eastside Food Co-op, your favorite hardware store, that one bakery you love
What it costs
Simple, transparent, no surprises:
- $75 per hour for the live shopping session. Most grocery runs fit comfortably in 1 hour.
- Multi-hour discount: 15% off if you book 2+ hours (e.g., a Costco run combined with a Target run).
- Plus the items you bought. Receipt photo sent to you; no markup, no upcharge.
- Free local delivery within our Minneapolis–St. Paul service area for compact-car-sized orders.
- No subscription. No membership. No service fee. Tips are 100% optional and 100% go to your shopper.
Frequently asked questions
Instacart and Shipt send a gig worker who guesses what you wanted from a static list — and you pay a service fee, delivery fee, item markup, and a tip. Selectido is one full hour of a real Twin Cities shopper, on live video with you, who you direct in real time. We don't mark up items. Local delivery is free if it fits in a compact car. Best when you want a real person making thoughtful choices, not just a fast pickup.
Yes — one of our most common use cases. You book and pre-pay; your parent joins the video call. They get the personal experience of "going shopping"; you handle the logistics. We send the receipt summary to both addresses if you want.
Many Twin Cities customers book a recurring weekly slot — same time, same store. Selectido uses a first-to-accept model, so the shopper won't always be the same person, but your preferences are saved on file (brand of bread you like, no cilantro in salsa, that one specific apple variety) so whichever shopper picks up the booking has the context. Pay-as-you-go, no subscription. Pause anytime.
No. The video call works in any browser via a one-tap link we text or email you. No app, no account complexity. If you can answer a FaceTime call, you can do this. Want a free 5-minute test call before your first session? Just ask — happy to set one up.
Yes for any shopper handling deliveries to senior or vulnerable customers. We require an in-person introductory video call with our founder before approval. Background checks are part of our homebound delivery program. Small team, vetted by us individually.
The shopper pays at the register from our consolidation hub (which you pre-loaded into your Selectido wallet). You never hand over a credit card. After the session you see the receipt photo, actual item totals, and your remaining wallet balance.
It's not really free with Instacart — they make their margin on item markups, service fees, delivery fees, and tip suggestions. Selectido charges a transparent hourly rate so you know exactly what you're paying. For a typical $200 grocery run, an Instacart total often beats $75 in fees + markup once you add it all up. We're often cheaper for larger orders.
Any store that's open and physically accessible to a member of the public, we can shop. We can't shop at members-only warehouses where the customer doesn't have a membership AND where a non-member can't legally enter (rare). Costco specifically — non-members CAN enter for prescription pickup and a few other reasons; we work with shoppers who have memberships so this isn't a barrier.
Yes — tipping is welcomed but never required or expected. 100% of any tip goes directly to your shopper (we don't take a cut). Most customers who tip do so at the end of the session via the app.
No catch. We're a small Twin Cities company building this because we think the existing delivery apps treat shopping like a logistics problem when for many people it's actually a human-need problem. The free local delivery is part of our community give-back. We make money on the hourly session rate; that's it.