Why being an Instacart Shopper is not the best way to earn money

My personal experience

If you are an instacart shopper what is your one or many concerns you have with working as an independent shopper?

My Experience as a Shopper

For those that may not be aware, Instacart is an online platform for customers to order groceries and other items. As an independent contractor/shopper, we shop these orders and deliver them to the customers.

Over the past year, I have found that Instacart is not beneficial for its independent contractors, and with the current inflation on gas, it (among other gigs) may not be the best option to earn extra funds. It's a vicious cycle of gas roulette!

Reasons why I feel Instacart is not worth the time, money, and energy from a shoppers standpoint:

Low pay with high miles

I have shopped orders as low as $7 that may be 8-10 miles away from the designated store. By the time you do the shop and deliver it, you have now earned gas money! The average gas price in Florida right now is $4.30 per gallon. Sometimes you may luck up on a $7 order that’s 3 miles away but it fluctuates. This leads me to my next point.

Order price point fluctuations

Depending on time, day, and location a shop could vary in range and there is never any consistency. For example, I could accept a $7 shop with 22 items on a Tuesday at 11 am and on Thursday that same type of order could be $12 at the same store (both before tips). I have to then figure out the momentum of that particular area to know what days and times are more feasible to work. However, if you are a nomad/traveler like myself it’s the luck of the draw!

24-hour tip hold

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. You accept a shop that is $25 and of that, $18 is in tips. This means you will only have $7 immediately available.

There is a 24 hour waiting period for tips and the time starts after the shop is completed. So let’s say you start a shop at 1 pm but did not deliver and complete it until 2:15, your $18 in tips will be available at 2:15 pm the next day.

Doordash and uber eats tips are usually available within 1–2 hours.

Poor customer service

If you want to chat with a representative about a shop concern, forget it! The only way you are speaking to someone is through their chat feature and that will eat up your patience and time, especially if you are in the middle of a shop.

At one point I spoke with… excuse me text with, 3 reps in a 3 hour period to resolve an app issue that was apparently only affecting “Android” holders. Yea I know, how specifically targeted could that be? Needless to say, my customers canceled their orders as it should not take 3 hours to deliver.

Every time I have to utilize the chat feature for service help, it's like they take their time with responding which leads you to be at the mercy of their lack of urgency. Our pay is mainly based on customer tips and if you get an unhappy customer well…

App issues and glitches

I have rebooted, reinstalled, signed out, and checked my phone's configuration more times than enough! Frozen screens, shop toss-outs, and even missing orders have occurred. There is one feature where you can select to see which items are designated for each customer (sometimes I get 2 orders at the same time) and at one point it worked perfectly. Let’s just say it’s now just a button that sends you to a screen it’s not intended for.

Overview

Besides the above concerns, there are also heavy shops (cases of water, soda, pet food, etc) and no way of knowing if you will be walking several flights of stairs of an apartment with 4 cases of water. The compensation rate for these types of shops is in my opinion underrated.

In-store shops, which are shop only (no delivery required) will only pay $7-$10 a shop (if you’re lucky) for 45-100 items. These shops can sometimes take from 45 minutes to an hour and a half to complete.

For me, I have found this should not be your main source of income. If anything it’s gas money or lunch money and nothing else. By the time my day is over, I am left with maybe $20-$30 for personal use. One day I did 10 shops, made $119, and walked away with $40 after gas and lunch (nomad life).

Anyway, let me know your experience with this gig work, and let’s share stories.

Thanks for reading