Grocery store shopping and delivery for Instacart, Incident #1:
A woman about 35 years old came to the front door of her house to take delivery of the groceries she’d ordered through her Instacart app. She was so glad to see me, but also looked like she was ready to collapse into a coma or turn into a zombie.
That came from the baby she was holding, probably less than a year old, who had his fingers in his mouth and stared me down through bright blue eyes. Then there was his sister, about three years old, wrapped around Mommy’s leg and crying in what would seconds later become a tantrum. Mom’s glazed-over eyes made more sense.
Incident #2:
A woman in her mid-80s let me in to her apartment. She guided me to the kitchen to set the groceries on a counter.
I saw her husband sitting in his wheelchair checking out the grocery bags, obviously in great discomfort. His wife wasn’t doing much better, and told me how glad she was to start using Instacart. She just couldn’t do the shopping anymore, and had to take care of her husband. Her granddaughter had just set up their account a month before and was taking care of their weekly grocery order. Life had gotten better in the past month she told me, with her husband shaking his head in agreement with nearly a smile on his face.
Incident #3:
The customer wanted 16 pounds of turkey burger at 90% lean and 10% fat. But Ralph’s meat section
only had three packages left with about a pound and a half in each one — only about 25 percent of what the customer ordered. The meat counter employee told me that’s all the turkey burger they would have until about 3:00 that afternoon — four hours later, which did me no good.
The turkey burger was part of a grocery order for a drug and alcohol rehab home in Huntington Beach. They had a huge order, but this could be a make or break situation. I had a few questions: Do I go to another Ralph’s store? Do I call the customer, who was probably extremely busy and wouldn’t answer or hear the voice mail or see a text message — which happened during the last order I’d done for them?
Incident #4:
A couple in their late-70s-to-early-80s shopped near me at a Stater Bros. in Fountain Valley. He seemed to be a bit of a novice as a grocery shopper, and his wife a veteran finding the best deals and the most logical combination of products for their planned meals over the next few days.
The husband tried to take control of the shopping trip, but he was promptly put back into his assistant role. He tried arguing about the best deal on cans of tuna, but she wouldn’t listen to him. They were eating a lot of it, and he didn’t get that the 7 oz. can was much more feasible than the 3 oz. can. He eventually grunted, shrugged it off, and gave in.
They would not become Instacart customers anytime soon — grocery shopping was too important and habitual for her. But there would come a day when it was not going to be feasible anymore. They may had seen enough Instacart shoppers to try it out.
Incident #5:
The customer stayed on me like a dog on a bone from the beginning of the Whole Foods Market shopping trip. It was his 65th Instacart order, and he had quite a few notes typed into several of the 40 items on the shopping list. “Make sure you look at the expiration dates,” “organic only,” “this flavor only or refund it,” and there was more.
It got better when I arrived at his house to finish the delivery. He may have been home, but wasn’t coming to the front door — or answering my phone call, voice mail, or responding to my text. So I reported it to an Instacart shopper helper, who told me to stay on the phone while he called the customer. It turned out that the customer was running late, stuck in traffic on the freeway. Go ahead and leave it there on the porch, I was told. Why the customer didn’t tell me that several minutes earlier, I don’t really know.
I represent a lot of people who'll you see in grocery stores wearing an Instacart lanyard, or one of their green or black t-shirts. Most all of the shopping trips go well, and customers are glad to see us show up with their groceries. They’re pleased they didn’t have the work through a big crowd at Costco, or have to lug a few of the water packs with 40 containers wrapped together in plastic.
The irritating episodes can make the day or evening into a stressful, highly annoying experience to go through. It does become a colorful story to tell, and sometimes the customer appreciates it enough to tip well.
Since April 2017, I’ve been participating in what thousands of other men and women have been doing: full-service grocery shopping and delivery for Instacart as an independent contractor. I doubt I’ll be quitting soon.
That’s the longest I’ve ever worked for a mobility service, and I’ve done plenty of them.
Prior to Instacart, I occasionally made decent income taking people on Lyft and Uber rides that really paid off late at night or early in the morning, which I wrote about in Tales of UberMan. Later I tried out Postmates under the guidance of a fellow ride-hailing driver. It had Uber and Lyft beat with pay for a few months; but that all changed when my home market of Long Beach became swamped with drivers like me. DoorDash was a little bit better, and I tried out UberEats.
I’ve also tried out Deliv for package delivery from a Best Buy store or another retail outlet to someone’s home or workplace. And we had guests stay over during the summer through Airbnb, which worked out but could occasionally be troublesome — trying to get the room ready by 3:00 in the afternoon, or earlier if a special request was accepted.
I even dropped a freelance writing gig last year, after having had enough of the poor treatment from the editor. I added on more Instacart hours and never looked back.
To answer your questions on my non-Instacart mobility service experiences:
I don’t see me staying with Instacart for years to come, but for today I will continue doing the best I can at customer-centric grocery shopping and delivery.
I started up at Instacart with a training session and a test given at a Whole Foods Market in Irvine. That was right before Amazon bought the Whole Foods company and started moving away from Instacart and over to Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime for grocery shopping and delivery.
I got to ask the Instacart trainer good questions and to check in with my fellow newbies. It wasn’t easy for several weeks after I’d started. I’d never been much of a grocery shopper before Instacart.
Unfortunately, the in-store training went away for new shoppers months later. Instacart staff has been swamped with its employer adding new grocery chains and geographic locations to its fast-growing infrastructure.
The business model ties into what I see as a major economic growth area — fast, convenient, affordable services for busy people of all types — aging people, those with physical limitations, parents taking care of their children, customers with a demanding career and a very busy lifestyle, and consumers who just have to try out the mobile app at least one time or a promotional offer from their grocery store.
I’ve had several batches delivered to people who recently had surgeries and couldn’t lift anything over 10-to-20 pounds. Boy, were they glad to see me.
Last year, Amazon bought Whole Foods Market to establish a strong presence in the grocery space through its Amazon Fresh division. A few major companies are acquiring shopper startup companies and creating their own business units — and that includes Walmart, Kroger, and Target. FreshDirect and Peapod have been building their owner grocery shopping and delivery mobile app-based services for several years, and are serious Instacart competitors.
The question for mobility drivers — who may have put in a lot of hours driving their cars for Uber and Lyft riders; delivering meals for Postmates, DoorDash, and GrubHub; dropping off packages for Amazon Flex/Prime or Deliv; picking up kids at school and after music lessons for HopSkipDrive; and doing full-service shopping and delivery for Instacart — is how you make it worthwhile financially.
Then there’s the question of quality of life. Is it worth it?
It is a bit strange being one of the few men in the grocery store. Sure, the general manager is a male and there are a few young men working the meat counter, produce, and bringing in shopping carts stranded out in the parking lot.
But grocery shopping, and working as checkers and other key grocery jobs, is a woman’s game.
I’ve seen that in body language a few times, such as when I’m needing to step in and find the yogurt I need to fulfill the customer’s order. I might get stared at disdainfully by a mom with her baby propped up in a baby seat; or another woman quickly side stepping out of the way as if I were going to knock her over.
I might be given an apology from someone who doesn’t owe me one. Just because she needs to pass in front of me with her cart while I’m scanning a shelf for the right tortillas, I don’t need to receive an apology for someone who’s not really getting in the way. I suppose her family had trained her to be way too polite when she was a little girl.
I’m usually too obsessed with getting the shopping done correctly and promptly, and can be a little bit socially inept. So I try to stay conscious of my fellow shoppers while gliding down the aisles and finding what I’m looking for to scan on my phone and place in the shopping cart. It’s not good to have enemies in a shopping store.
While I really don’t want to end up doing it years from now, I’ve found that Instacart works for me.
Some days, the money can be really good. I might have done two double orders and one requiring two carts and speciality orders at the deli and meat counter. The tips are usually generous.
Some days the money isn’t so good. An hour or more can pass with no batch popping up on my app. The orders can be small, along with the tips.
The stories I shared at the beginning tell the real story for me. It is quite satisfying to deliver the food and household products that people need to live and thrive; and maybe they really can’t do it for themselves anymore.
While Uber and Postmates might be delivering customers extra conveniences, Instacart is bringing groceries to their door that can be nearly as important as the air they breathe.
A woman about 35 years old came to the front door of her house to take delivery of the groceries she’d ordered through her Instacart app. She was so glad to see me, but also looked like she was ready to collapse into a coma or turn into a zombie.
That came from the baby she was holding, probably less than a year old, who had his fingers in his mouth and stared me down through bright blue eyes. Then there was his sister, about three years old, wrapped around Mommy’s leg and crying in what would seconds later become a tantrum. Mom’s glazed-over eyes made more sense.
Incident #2:
A woman in her mid-80s let me in to her apartment. She guided me to the kitchen to set the groceries on a counter.
I saw her husband sitting in his wheelchair checking out the grocery bags, obviously in great discomfort. His wife wasn’t doing much better, and told me how glad she was to start using Instacart. She just couldn’t do the shopping anymore, and had to take care of her husband. Her granddaughter had just set up their account a month before and was taking care of their weekly grocery order. Life had gotten better in the past month she told me, with her husband shaking his head in agreement with nearly a smile on his face.
Incident #3:
The customer wanted 16 pounds of turkey burger at 90% lean and 10% fat. But Ralph’s meat section
The turkey burger was part of a grocery order for a drug and alcohol rehab home in Huntington Beach. They had a huge order, but this could be a make or break situation. I had a few questions: Do I go to another Ralph’s store? Do I call the customer, who was probably extremely busy and wouldn’t answer or hear the voice mail or see a text message — which happened during the last order I’d done for them?
Incident #4:
A couple in their late-70s-to-early-80s shopped near me at a Stater Bros. in Fountain Valley. He seemed to be a bit of a novice as a grocery shopper, and his wife a veteran finding the best deals and the most logical combination of products for their planned meals over the next few days.
The husband tried to take control of the shopping trip, but he was promptly put back into his assistant role. He tried arguing about the best deal on cans of tuna, but she wouldn’t listen to him. They were eating a lot of it, and he didn’t get that the 7 oz. can was much more feasible than the 3 oz. can. He eventually grunted, shrugged it off, and gave in.
They would not become Instacart customers anytime soon — grocery shopping was too important and habitual for her. But there would come a day when it was not going to be feasible anymore. They may had seen enough Instacart shoppers to try it out.
Incident #5:
The customer stayed on me like a dog on a bone from the beginning of the Whole Foods Market shopping trip. It was his 65th Instacart order, and he had quite a few notes typed into several of the 40 items on the shopping list. “Make sure you look at the expiration dates,” “organic only,” “this flavor only or refund it,” and there was more.
It got better when I arrived at his house to finish the delivery. He may have been home, but wasn’t coming to the front door — or answering my phone call, voice mail, or responding to my text. So I reported it to an Instacart shopper helper, who told me to stay on the phone while he called the customer. It turned out that the customer was running late, stuck in traffic on the freeway. Go ahead and leave it there on the porch, I was told. Why the customer didn’t tell me that several minutes earlier, I don’t really know.
I represent a lot of people who'll you see in grocery stores wearing an Instacart lanyard, or one of their green or black t-shirts. Most all of the shopping trips go well, and customers are glad to see us show up with their groceries. They’re pleased they didn’t have the work through a big crowd at Costco, or have to lug a few of the water packs with 40 containers wrapped together in plastic.
The irritating episodes can make the day or evening into a stressful, highly annoying experience to go through. It does become a colorful story to tell, and sometimes the customer appreciates it enough to tip well.
Since April 2017, I’ve been participating in what thousands of other men and women have been doing: full-service grocery shopping and delivery for Instacart as an independent contractor. I doubt I’ll be quitting soon.
That’s the longest I’ve ever worked for a mobility service, and I’ve done plenty of them.
Prior to Instacart, I occasionally made decent income taking people on Lyft and Uber rides that really paid off late at night or early in the morning, which I wrote about in Tales of UberMan. Later I tried out Postmates under the guidance of a fellow ride-hailing driver. It had Uber and Lyft beat with pay for a few months; but that all changed when my home market of Long Beach became swamped with drivers like me. DoorDash was a little bit better, and I tried out UberEats.
I’ve also tried out Deliv for package delivery from a Best Buy store or another retail outlet to someone’s home or workplace. And we had guests stay over during the summer through Airbnb, which worked out but could occasionally be troublesome — trying to get the room ready by 3:00 in the afternoon, or earlier if a special request was accepted.
I even dropped a freelance writing gig last year, after having had enough of the poor treatment from the editor. I added on more Instacart hours and never looked back.
To answer your questions on my non-Instacart mobility service experiences:
- Yes, people vomited in my car during Uber and Lyft rides. Quite fortunately, both of them just barely cleared the car’s doorway and kept it from splattering on my carpet or upholstery.
- Yes, I did have more than one passenger creating an alcohol/drug-induced, near-psychotic, and potentially near-death, experience in my car.
- Yes, I did feel like I should be paid to be a rider’s therapist more than once after listening to him or her whining endlessly about their current or ex-significant other. One of these trips involved a woman who needed a ride to stalk her ex-boyfriend who was on a date with another woman at a bar.
- Yes, young people did take great advantage of offers from Postmates for partners like Chick-fil-A that took nearly all the financial gains away from working that day with their discounts and freebie offers. No tips were offered, of course.
- Yes, I have worked with job placement agencies for a good job in editorial and ancillary fields (research, marketing communications, etc.). No, I haven’t found a job yet.
- Yes, I do have concerns over finances — good pay, benefits, and retirement — and I do have some irons in the fire beyond Instacart, Uber, and other mobility services.
I don’t see me staying with Instacart for years to come, but for today I will continue doing the best I can at customer-centric grocery shopping and delivery.
I started up at Instacart with a training session and a test given at a Whole Foods Market in Irvine. That was right before Amazon bought the Whole Foods company and started moving away from Instacart and over to Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime for grocery shopping and delivery.
I got to ask the Instacart trainer good questions and to check in with my fellow newbies. It wasn’t easy for several weeks after I’d started. I’d never been much of a grocery shopper before Instacart.
Unfortunately, the in-store training went away for new shoppers months later. Instacart staff has been swamped with its employer adding new grocery chains and geographic locations to its fast-growing infrastructure.
The business model ties into what I see as a major economic growth area — fast, convenient, affordable services for busy people of all types — aging people, those with physical limitations, parents taking care of their children, customers with a demanding career and a very busy lifestyle, and consumers who just have to try out the mobile app at least one time or a promotional offer from their grocery store.
I’ve had several batches delivered to people who recently had surgeries and couldn’t lift anything over 10-to-20 pounds. Boy, were they glad to see me.
Last year, Amazon bought Whole Foods Market to establish a strong presence in the grocery space through its Amazon Fresh division. A few major companies are acquiring shopper startup companies and creating their own business units — and that includes Walmart, Kroger, and Target. FreshDirect and Peapod have been building their owner grocery shopping and delivery mobile app-based services for several years, and are serious Instacart competitors.
The question for mobility drivers — who may have put in a lot of hours driving their cars for Uber and Lyft riders; delivering meals for Postmates, DoorDash, and GrubHub; dropping off packages for Amazon Flex/Prime or Deliv; picking up kids at school and after music lessons for HopSkipDrive; and doing full-service shopping and delivery for Instacart — is how you make it worthwhile financially.
Then there’s the question of quality of life. Is it worth it?
It is a bit strange being one of the few men in the grocery store. Sure, the general manager is a male and there are a few young men working the meat counter, produce, and bringing in shopping carts stranded out in the parking lot.
But grocery shopping, and working as checkers and other key grocery jobs, is a woman’s game.
I’ve seen that in body language a few times, such as when I’m needing to step in and find the yogurt I need to fulfill the customer’s order. I might get stared at disdainfully by a mom with her baby propped up in a baby seat; or another woman quickly side stepping out of the way as if I were going to knock her over.
I might be given an apology from someone who doesn’t owe me one. Just because she needs to pass in front of me with her cart while I’m scanning a shelf for the right tortillas, I don’t need to receive an apology for someone who’s not really getting in the way. I suppose her family had trained her to be way too polite when she was a little girl.
I’m usually too obsessed with getting the shopping done correctly and promptly, and can be a little bit socially inept. So I try to stay conscious of my fellow shoppers while gliding down the aisles and finding what I’m looking for to scan on my phone and place in the shopping cart. It’s not good to have enemies in a shopping store.
While I really don’t want to end up doing it years from now, I’ve found that Instacart works for me.
Some days, the money can be really good. I might have done two double orders and one requiring two carts and speciality orders at the deli and meat counter. The tips are usually generous.
Some days the money isn’t so good. An hour or more can pass with no batch popping up on my app. The orders can be small, along with the tips.
The stories I shared at the beginning tell the real story for me. It is quite satisfying to deliver the food and household products that people need to live and thrive; and maybe they really can’t do it for themselves anymore.
While Uber and Postmates might be delivering customers extra conveniences, Instacart is bringing groceries to their door that can be nearly as important as the air they breathe.
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