TARGET (258 8th Avenue, Chelsea) — Grocery / Retail. Delivery case study #1. Prices compared against Target’s own listing and the same store on DoorDash.
Five everyday items — a 12-pack of Coca-Cola, a soda bottle, a bag of Lay’s, a box of Cheerios and a pint of Ben & Jerry’s — cost $23.75 at the shelf of the Target on 8th Avenue in Chelsea. Ordered from that same Target through DoorDash, to an address a few blocks away, the identical basket came to $46.51 at checkout. That is nearly double the price for the same groceries from the same store.
The receipt
Here is exactly what DoorDash’s checkout showed for the five-item basket, delivered to a New York City address on 15 July 2026:
- Items subtotal: $27.25
- Delivery fee: $4.99
- Fees & estimated tax: $10.29 — which DoorDash itself breaks down to include a $1.99 “NYC Regulatory Response Fee,” a $0.65 bottle deposit, plus a service fee and estimated tax
- Dasher tip (DoorDash’s suggested 10%): $3.98
- Total at the door: $46.51
The same groceries scanned at the Target register would have cost $23.75. Delivered, the customer pays $22.76 more — a premium of about 96%.
The markup comes first — before any fee
Delivery fees and tips are visible; most shoppers expect them. What is harder to see is that many of the item prices were already higher on DoorDash than at Target. We priced each item against Target’s own listing, which the retailer keeps at parity with its shelf price. The bag of Lay’s and the box of Cheerios were each about a fifth more; the pint of Ben & Jerry’s was more than a third higher. A few items, like the Coca-Cola 12-pack, matched exactly. Across the basket, the goods alone were about 15% more before a single fee was added.
| Item | Target price | DoorDash price | Markup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coca-Cola Original Soda, 12-pack (12 fl oz cans) | $8.89 | $8.89 | +0% |
| Coca-Cola Soda, 20 fl oz bottle | $2.69 | $2.99 | +11% |
| Lay’s Classic Potato Chips, 8 oz | $3.49 | $4.19 | +20% |
| Cheerios, 8.9 oz | $3.49 | $4.19 | +20% |
| Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, 1 pint | $5.19 | $6.99 | +35% |
| Basket total | $23.75 | $27.25 | +15% |
Where every dollar goes
Of the $46.51, roughly $23.75 buys groceries at Target’s own price. The remaining $22.76 is the cost of the middle: about $3.50 in item mark-ups baked into the menu, a $4.99 delivery fee, a $10.29 line of “fees & estimated tax” that bundles a service fee, sales tax, a bottle deposit and the $1.99 NYC Regulatory Response Fee, and a $3.98 tip for the driver. Only the tip is stated to go to the person who actually carries the bags.
DoorDash’s own checkout carries one more disclosure, required under New York law. Before the order is placed, the app states: “This price was set by an algorithm using your personal data.” In plain terms, the price a New Yorker sees can depend on their address, their past orders and their saved stores.
By the numbers
- Basket at Target (shelf): $23.75
- Same basket, DoorDash items only: $27.25 (+15%)
- Delivered total, with fees and a 10% tip: $46.51 (+96% over the counter)
- Item mark-ups ranged from 0% to about 35% across the five items
- Named NYC surcharge: the $1.99 “NYC Regulatory Response Fee.”
Method
On 15 July 2026, USA Times priced five national-brand items at the Target on 258 8th Avenue using Target’s own website, which the company keeps at parity with in-store shelf prices, and recorded the price of each identical item (same brand, same size) on that same Target store’s DoorDash page. We then added the five items to a DoorDash cart and proceeded to checkout for delivery to a Manhattan address to capture the delivery fee, the bundled “fees & estimated tax,” the disclosed sub-fees, and the tip. No order was placed. The tip shown is DoorDash’s own suggested 10%. Prices and fees can change over time and can vary by address; figures reflect the moment of capture.
Right of reply
USA Times has contacted DoorDash and Target for comment, and will update this report with any response. Both were asked to explain why identical items are priced higher through the app than at the store, and what the “NYC Regulatory Response Fee” and the algorithmic-pricing disclosure mean for New York shoppers.
Sources
- Target item prices — target.com (Target 258 8th Ave listing), captured 15 July 2026.
- DoorDash item prices and checkout — Target on DoorDash, store #33401425, live checkout to a NYC address, captured 15 July 2026.
- “NYC Regulatory Response Fee” ($1.99), bottle-deposit and algorithmic-pricing disclosures — DoorDash checkout and NYC/NY-law modal, captured 15 July 2026.
- New York State sales-tax treatment of soft drinks and candy — NYS Department of Taxation and Finance.
This report is part of a USA Times series auditing food-delivery pricing. Prices were collected by USA Times on the date noted, compared item by item against the retailer’s own current price, and reviewed by an editor before publication.
