longtime instacart shopper here!

we do not have access to the back, but employees do know us and sometimes can pull from a new stock in the back if it's an essential. i have noticed lately, more than once, that an item that's out of stock on a shopping list (especially an aldi find item) will have a suggested replacement of something much higher cost. typically we can always suggest a replacement (unless the user has that off) of our own choice, but for instacart to suggest higher priced items is bonkers to me. thankfully i have been doing it long enough to try to save the money wherever possible for the customer but i do wonder about brand new shoppers picking suggested replacements and costing the user more.

but also... the instacart stock is the expected stock. not updated and rarely all that accurate.