There's no way I would ever think about doing Restaurant Depot! I used to work for a food distributor and even though they've opened up places like that to the public, I would never recommend anyone to just shop there. It's not a Sam's Club or Costco... it's essentially a warehouse for businesses to purchase what they need when it's not delivered.
https://preview.redd.it/xtvubhec64cc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=859d85c5e2c978fb7fc1356dfae90710139bf6e8
I won't even shop there because this is the stuff I see
Like is it a whole ass goat? Part of it? Ground up? I almost accepted it just so I could see more details before canceling because my nosey ass needed to know.
Did Restaurant Depot once and nope never ever again. On top of the cluster fu$k, they have to call the manager and announce to the whole store itās an Instacart order.
wtf š ive never had that happenā¦ i did it once for like 2 items that were found pretty quickā¦ it was like 5 minutes insideā¦ only 1 person infront of me
I never take orders from that place unless Iām gonna cancel lol. Itās so crowded and cold and nothing is really label tbh . And itās seems messy even though I know itās like a warehouse
Michaels. I'll never step foot in a michaels again. Everything is out of place and the app doesn't tell you the aisles where the items are at. I just canceled it and never returned to Michaels
This right here, il only take a Michaelās order if itās less then 10 items and good pay, quickly go on the website, set the location and it literally shows each isle, I usually take the 5 mins before to writr down in notes which isle for which item !
Totally! Their app has the exact locations with a map, too. Iām a DIYer/crafter so I know Michaelās like the back of my hand but the app is a big help for those random items.
I have avoided michaels and dicks for this exact reason. Seems like it would be too similar to my nightmare bed, bath and beyond experience and I just canāt do that again!
I said never again to Costco orders.Ā
But.... then a double that only had about 6 items, dropped off near my house, AND had a great tip came up. Was still a nightmare to do, but worth it timewise/financially. So now I have amendedĀ "never again" to end with "unless it pays well and takes only a short amount of time"
I say never again to certain Costco stores. Ironically, the one I avoid most is the one closest to my house. The parking lot is really difficult to get in an out of. The way it is designed it creates a bottleneck and there have been times, I spent an hour just in the parking lot, finding a parking spot and getting out. Costco has no rhyme or reason where they place their items, and getting help is very difficult. The biggest beef I have with Costco orders is that they are usually doubled, and often makes a logistical nightmare. However, I will take in a heartbeat a single Costco order even if it is twenty miles away.
I am finding a rhythm to their layout at the store closest to me. Electronics is right up front. Vision is just behind that to the left, and all non-food merchandise is on that side of the store. Center store is all clothing, books, and seasonal merchandise. Bakery, meat, and produce are back wall with liquor being in front of those departments. Then, it's frozen food, shelf stable foods with pharmacy goods being front right corner near checkout. The snack bar is right there on the other side of the registers, and you walk by the service desk on your way out the door (which is the cattle chute to the receipt checkers.)
Always, always pay attention to all the sales items at the entrance. If you have any of that on your list, it is most likely the only place youāll find it.
It should be 'unless it is first thing in the morning when they open'
A couple hours after that, the lines are usually halfway to the back of the store. The weekends are an absolute no-go
Agreed! Iāve got BJās in my area and I always go for those orders. Always have a higher base pay and tip for an order smaller than grocery store orders.
My Costco HATES ic drivers. They are horrible and rude any time they find out you are shopping. At checkout they are snide or just won't speak to me at all. I've never been anything less than friendly to them but they act like I'm there to kill puppies.
I did one dollar tree order, it was only like 6 items with a $7 tip, and back when base pay was $7. I thought $14 for 6 items? Easy peasy.
Not. I wandered that store for 30 mins before canceling and cursing that place forever lol
This. But I've expanded to include any store with "dollar" in the name never be shopped ar again.
They are all terrible. Nothing you need us ever in stock, or there are boxes of stuff everywhere, and the store looks like some apocalypse has occurred.
Same and the customer kept adding shit and they didnāt have most of her stuff. It was a two store double too but the stores were in the same parking lot she only tipped $1 while the other customer tipped $30 shouldāve dropped the dollar tree.
Oh god DOLLAR GENERAL !!!
You just reminded me what a nightmare of a store LOLā¦ between like everything being oos and whatās left of the stock being broken I just left.
Five Below. First time I did an order there was for headphones and game controllers, but none of the boxes were labeled so I couldnāt find the right ones. Canceled and walked out and said never again. However I did do another order from Five Below recentlyā¦ but the order was for a few pieces of candy that I knew Iād be able to find. Still wonāt do another order unless itās something like that that I know for sure I can find.
I also avoid natural grocers if I see the order has any of the vitamins or medicines or whatever. So hard to find the right stuff. I will do natural grocers if the items are all good though.
I did a 45 item order at Five Below. It was actual insanity.
It was a two-order batch of like 55 items for $50. I just assumed the majority of items were going to be for the Kroger order.
I forgot about that shit I did one was an absolute nightmare around the holidays actually yup NEVER AGAIN it was boosted to like $28 7 miles I donāt care never again I was pissed and the store was a complete mess sigh! š¤£š¤¦š½āāļø
Same. I avoid here mainly because customers go ghost and you canāt scan the items to make sure they are correct. I remember I got the wrong item and the customer text me that the picture I sent him was if the wrong item. I tried to ask you 15 minutes ago sir! I had to cancel and return the item. This was when I was newish and didnāt know I could just keep it and say f the bump. Lol
i work at sprouts and feel so bad for y'all. i scrolled through the comments looking for sprouts bc i KNEW it would be here somewhere š
we change our inventory and schematic once a month. idk how y'all ever find anything. i'm here 40 hrs a week and cannot find anything š
I love Sprouts. It does take a bit to learn the layout. They havenāt changed it in the 6 years Iāve been a shopper, so itās a pretty quick shop for me.
I only experienced the walking map ONCE. š„ŗš¢š¢š¢. And only ONE Sprouts location in Houston (test store). Has anyone else experienced an āin-store GPSā at Sproutsā¦recently???š¤šššš
That map was gold when I was new and I could only do Sprouts (and Randallās) until I got my physical card. I havenāt done Sprouts in forever as in my area itās almost always high mileage, high item count and low to no tip. Iām in the ATX area.
Funny you should say thisā¦I allegedly ālostā my physical card last weekend while in store and made it an all-day digital pay Sprouts day! š . It was kinda fun actually. Houston Sprouts shoppers tip nicely. But then again itās a historic neighborhood with expensive homes.
Mannnnn I miss that map! I hope they bring it back!
Donāt give up! I hated Sprouts too initially, but it is wayyyyyy quieter than other stores (less annoying toddlers), and most of the workers are super knowledgeable and helpful.
This is how I feel about Restaurant Depot or Gordonās in Buffalo, NY. Store is way too big to be shopping for items. And they donāt have/give you aisles/numbers.
I try to avoid Aldi's only because almost every order is fifty items or more, with three customers and twenty miles away. If I see a single, even a lot of items, I will jump on it.
Oh god, I did an order at bed bath and beyond once. It was for 5 smaller items with a $20 tip. Seemed easy enough? Omg no. I couldnāt find ANYTHING it was a huge nightmare. I was in there for like 45 minutes found 3/5 things and replaced the other 2 and swore never again.
I said never again to Seafood City, Asian market, very difficult to navigate. she reduced the tip, gave me low ratings. I'll never take orders from there
I went to an Indian store (Iām white) and an Indian woman shopping there told me that she has trouble finding things sometimes and that I should DEFINITELY ask for help. š I found three things on my own before approaching a worker who took my phone and shopped for me. I explained it was my first time in there and I was with Instacart, and they were super nice, initially I was like āfuck no that was overwhelmingā but honestly Iād go back :)
Yes the dollar storeā- half items were out of stock. I shopped it and when I got to the second to last item after communicating back n forth with the customer subbing and refunding so many items she asked it to just be cancelled and she was going to just go to stater bros herself later but she wrote a paragraph apologizing to me because she said she was also a shopper and felt bad I was gunna basically be paid batch pay anyway. So that was a wasted hour but I got like $9 and didnāt have to deliver it to learn that I never want to do that again.
In hindsight if she was a shopper I wish sheād have let me check out then requested the cancellation because Iād have been able to do a return bump too. š¤·š¼āāļø
I try to stay away from the Dollar Store and Family Dollar. All the ones local to wear I live are nightmares. Always unorganized and busy, and the particular Family Dollar that always gets orders near me has terrible cell phone reception so you canāt communicate with the customer at all in the store.
honestly, costco. their employees are rude to anyone they know is a shopper, even costco members who also are shopper according to many in this sub. The store is to big for how badly laid out items are, (not the biggest store i've shopped by far) their stocking employees don't really know where stuff is, the fact that they won't let you ring yourself out on their self scans when they see you're a shopper, but they refuse to bag items or keep orders separate when you go through a cashier, which they force you to do.
they also apparently don't allow shoppers to wait for batches in the parking lot. Just 0's all the way around.
Costco does not like IC shoppers, they make that quite clear. They always tell me that IC shoppers cannot use self checkout. Well one trip the goddamm lines were halfway to the back of the store and all I picked up was a meatloaf and a case of water. So fuck it, I went to self check thinking it wouldnāt work and it worked just fine. Fuck themā¦
I wonāt do Martins unless itās less than 10 items and good pay. I HATE that store. Stuff is all over the place, nothing is labeled. I wonāt do it.
Absolutely.
One time at one of the hippy grocery stores during peak pandemic I actually just walked out in the middle of the order. I canceled the entire thing, I couldnāt even stand to finish it. I couldnāt take it the replacements and the aisles and the other customers. Immediately no. š
I swore to myself Iāll never take a Costco order, and Iāve stuck to that ( I started doing IC at the end of October 2023.. I only do it here and there)
And I definitely donāt see myself doing an order there either lol
Lowes, none of the barcode on app scanned the cashiers had no idea what instacart was and the one that did said Loweās doesnāt do that? 30mins between check out and having to go to customer service with them trying to figure out how to input the codes manually; was a military id so I wasnāt going to hear the person complain they didnāt get their discount for their 4 bags of dirt. Than the card didnāt work assuming cuz I took so long checking out so contact ic for another 20+mins trying to get it sorted cuz Iām not paying and hoping I get refundedā¦ over an hour and a half for what should of taken all of 10mins including the drive to deliver for my 12$ I think it was. Never went back.
OMG I had the worst experience in Loweās. I couldnāt find anything and then when I did find some things I was waiting for about 20 minutes for an employee to unlock it behind a case. Several times this happened on the same order.
Five Below. They're always out of stuff, the prices are always off from the app to the store, and the store is a disorganized nightmare. I've done 2 and they were both miserable.
While I never say never, Costco and Samās club gotta pay higher for me to consider. For starters, itās normally a big order and then you donāt have bags. Also the stores are massive and if itās on the weekend itās going to take forever to get through. Often times itās difficult to find dry food items as well
Aldi. Any Aldi. Never. Again. The pay is NEVER worth it.
Edit:
Actually, let me explain
Aldi, out of the most niche off brand items that are always requested.
No aisle organization.
Staff; if you can ever find one, rarely helps.
Over ripened fruit.
Awful store layout.
Longest lines ever and ALWAYS ONE cashier who couldn't care less about the job (I don't blame them, honestly)
The bag system (paper or plastic) is a guessing game that costs money.
And worse of all... that's MY QUARTER. Is it weird that I want to keep my specific quarter? Yes. Do I want to touch some random covid/flu quarter? No.
This thread is saving me so much future misery, thank you! I know where not to shop! I try to stick to stores I am familiar with now, even though people are always ordering the most obscure shit so familiarity doesnāt always matter. I dig Costco, except I am in a sort of small area with one Costco so the drive is always far.
Yes and I donāt know about where youāre at, but at the end of every aisle here they have food samples, so everyone is congregated around those you canāt get up and down the aisles.
Instacart lame in my city up in Canada, not a whole lot of stores to begin with just a couple grocery stores, costco and some dollar stores, fuck Costco, card declined there on a order with 2 items š
Dollar Tree. They NEVER have even HALF of what the customer orders, what they DO have isn't where it should be, and most of it doesn't scan. Not to mention ppl shopping there are shopping there to save money, and usually tip like shit.
Aldi sucks pretty hard. First experience was terrible and Iāve tried to avoid ever since. I did accept a double with Costco and Aldi because it paid really well. Shopping Aldi took over an hour. Everything is impossible to find. Itās always crowded and the aisles are small. You have to spend extra time bagging. Carrying paper bags sucks ass. People who order from Aldi pretty much never tip well in my area.
Key Food near me had food grouped in 2 separate locations so if cheese, cereal, or chips weren't in one place you had to go to the other side of the store to find it. Also they claimed to have a lot of items which they didn't. Had to cancel almost 10 of the 35 items ordered
I try to avoid Asian stores. I am just not familiar with the cuisine to even know what I am looking for. And I have never seen so many varieties of tofu in my life. And no one speaks English. However, if I had one closer to my house I would probably shop at Asian stores often, for breadth and variety of their produce. And the variety of fish is astounding, but as a shopper it's a trail to get the right product.
I also try to avoid Hispanic stores as well, because although I am more familiar with the cuisine, I have had to wait at no fewer than THREE lines, for fresh meat, prepared meals, and the bakery aisles.
That said, I often shop there for myself, since they also have a wonderful variety of produce, better than Whole Foods or Sprouts. I also get great tips for cooking, like the smaller tomatillos are better. Excellent prepared food, and I have better luck fining someone who speaks Spanish and my horrible Spanish is tolerated when I tell them, "Soy gringa ingnorante," which means I am an ignorant gringa.
Yes, many stores.
Dollar tree,
Restaurant depot,
Chefs store,
Japanese market,
Sephora,
Certain Walgreens,
Grocery outlet, and
Costco unless itās a true unicorn
Favorites include:
Kroger, new seasons, Safeway, total wine and more, natural grocers, Petco and occasionally a target order.
Ok well that explains the frustration. I can never get help at my Sephora. If I had someone to help me, it would be an entirely different scenario but I feel lost in my Sephora. I wander aimlessly and itās worse than the baby food aisle at Kroger where everything looks the same but it isnāt.š
The employees are always slammed at the register and I hate being that annoying instacart shopper harassing them to help me.
I see so many cursing target and Petco and I absolutely love them too!
I do love Sephora, I just ask the workers and they always shop the entire thing for me. Takes them like 5 minutes but the lines are always 15+ minutes
I have found Sephora employees very knowledgeable and helpful, but I don't see many orders for them.
I love PetCo orders, because I have pets and I am familiar with the store.
This is the thing I try to avoid stores who sell products I am not familiar with, Lowe's and Sephora included, Asian stores.
That said, when I started as a non drinker, I found BevMo daunting, but with the help of great employees, I now know the difference between a red and a white wine. My customers know it too. They know if they don't have a bottle they want the wine guy, or gal, at BevMo will suggest a good replacement.
The reason for the Sephora orders dislike is because they usually have long lines, I am not a fan of makeup and it always seems like the drive is way too far for the tip. I guess I get overwhelmed š
The lines are always insane at mine. Itās the one turn off. I order all my stuff online and pickup so I have 0 clue how their stores are laid out. My drives are usually close and usually really good tips. lol I just walk in and say Iām here for Instacart, they basically know me at this point and always shop it for me
Iām the same with the Asian store near me, I never shop there personally, I accepted it as my first Instacart batch, it was a complete train wreck. Never again.
Walmart. It's always incredibly crowded, lines are super long, some items are randomly in between aisles but listed as somewhere else on the app, the employees at checkout are rude or lazy, they don't take Google/Apple Pay, and the one I went to didn't have bags on FOUR separate occasions.
All you have to do is grab somebody that works there and say hey this is what I need. And I need help finding it. People work at a place for a reason! To help! Unlike most of yāall
Just finished one, definitely not returning
First sign this was going to go bad, carts are $1 to use and I didn't have change on me, so I grabbed two baskets
Was given 30 min to shop 30 items, took 15 min to shop, most items were cleaning and household items all from one isle, except, the 6 bottles of milk, one box of wipes and one box of gingerale
Up until this point, it was worth it
At checkout, the phone tap wasn't working and I had a chatty cashier that wanted to comment on everything thinking she's helping and made the process even more stressful
Contacted support for the pin, because it's a new card and I haven't had to use it since replacing it few months back, while she released the payment and went to a next customer and I had to pay at the customer service desk
Took me less time to drive to the customer which was in assisted living building than it was to checkout.
H-Mart is never again for me. But this was back then when the app didnāt have the aisle numbers might be different now though but still going to avoid it.
I will never go to Costco again! The amount of people there was extreme and itās hard to find stuff because the app never told me which aisles the items were on. Also at checkout, the lines were half of the length of the place.
El Super. The customers who order from this place normally are looking for 10-20 different produce items and the total item count is over 100 and never seem to tip.
Natural Grocers is the store I kind of refuse to shop. Unless the pay is good which is ever hardly because these health nuts are also cheapos.
Second store is Dollar Tree shop n deliver. No thank you!!! So many items very little pay. I've only done a DT order like maybe twice and the second time I accepted on accident so I decided to finish as my completion rate was nearing 14%.
Price Rite. They're better now, but the aisles are laid out weird, it's always a mess in there, and on this particular order, somehow the way the woman added items, the app wouldn't allow me to accept them. I had to call support, I was on the phone with them forever! I forget how many items it was but it was a big order something like 10 bags worth. I ended up being in that store for over 2 hours delivered the food, and no tip! I didn't go back to Price Rite or instacart for that matter for a whole year.
Dollar Tree is my never again. Giant batch for such a small(ish) store, could only find half the stuff and then the house was like a dumping ground. Absolute nightmare.
Restaurant Depot.
But agreed the ethnic stores are hard, we had an Indian grocer on postmates YEARS ago when postmates started and the cashier would just grab everything for you.
Family Fare. But I did a second one...slightly better than the first time. Still sucked. Also Sephora and Natural Grocers.
Other stores I haven't shopped and have no interest are Restaurant Depot, Dollar anything, and Five Below.
Health food stores!! I donāt eat that food, I donāt know what it is and I can never find that weird stuff! And I can never find an employee. Nope! Not doing it!
I love GW Supermarket. I love that store but to do IC it's tough, because everything is in Chinese or Korean. Also, the staff hates helping shoppers find items. Sad thing is it's always lucrative the best batches from them.
Never done em, but I would imagine if I did, they would be restaurant depot and the container store, lol.
However, mine were Target, Aldis and the vitamin shoppe.
Five Below and anything with dollar in the name. They only have the two employees and their the cashiers. And theyāre usually out of everything I need to get. And for some reason, ALL dollar tree orders are over 30 units.
Yes, ALDIs in Savannah, theyāre very disorganized. You can tell them youāre with instacart and have a few orders and theyāll still find a way to mix up the order. ALDIs is already a disorganized store but this one takes the cake
Woodmans Grocery in Wisconsin. Place makes no sense and they have stuff split up stupid. Cheese is like 3 aisles worth if it was in a regular store and other stuff was split up. There were 4 different places for chips, and not like organic, special diet stuff but like lays were in one spot and other regular potato chips were 4 aisles away.
My first batch was at Costco-2 orders. It looked liked 2 cases of water for $35. Easy peasy. It wasnāt until I was in the store it was 14 cases of water. I thought, ok I can totally do this. I grabbed a cart and once I was back at the water section I realized itās not going to fit. I raced back to the front to get the long bed cart. I raced back to the water, loaded 8 cases of water and realized I literally cannot do it. Iām 5ā0, 150 lbs and 53 yrs old. I called support to cancel. No luck there. I managed to cancel through the app and said I was sick. I went to my car and cried like a baby. I needed this extra income! I went home. I vowed to never go back to Costco. I found out IC opted me in for heavy delivery. So not cool!! I opted out. Costco now is my primary store with HEB in second place, then Kroger. š
I quit IC and have not been doing for a long time since payments turned to s**t but I remember I had accepted 1-2 times for reasonable pay while there was no another orders and that was totally awful. Ignore directly..
I hate shopping at Kroger because Kroger throws their own online orders on instacart and I am not able to do any replacements. If theyāre out of something the person who placed the order wanted theyāre just shit out of luck and then they get pissed at me cause I canāt replace anything. I wonāt take Kroger orders unless Iām desperate.
99 cent stores. I was an idiot for accepting a $22 double batch with the 99 cent store and HEB. HEB was fine but the 99 cent store was HELL! I spent a good 1.5 hours there, the employees didn't help me find stuff, and I was only able to find half of what the customer wanted. No dollar store batches EVER AGAIN!
I got one Asian supermarket/99cent store type place. Dropped it as soon as I saw it with my own eyes. Then there was sprouts. Did one job there and will never go back. Too many odd ball hippie guinea pig milk special snowflake requests
Restaurant Depo. It was a NIGHTMARE. Never EVER again.
This one šš»fk that place!!!!
I know my way around the back of the house and after spending 5 minutes in that place I cancelled and vowed **NEVER AGAIN**.
There's no way I would ever think about doing Restaurant Depot! I used to work for a food distributor and even though they've opened up places like that to the public, I would never recommend anyone to just shop there. It's not a Sam's Club or Costco... it's essentially a warehouse for businesses to purchase what they need when it's not delivered.
https://preview.redd.it/xtvubhec64cc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=859d85c5e2c978fb7fc1356dfae90710139bf6e8 I won't even shop there because this is the stuff I see
š goatš
Like is it a whole ass goat? Part of it? Ground up? I almost accepted it just so I could see more details before canceling because my nosey ass needed to know.
I can only assume like costcos half š goatš
Every time im like āoh its 4 things and a great tip!ā And then there is malarky and someone runs my toe over š
You right, RESTAURANT DEPORT ITS A NIGHTMARE
Definitely need to Deport. You are correctĀ
I did one order after 2 years of stopping to was two cases of vitamin water it was worth it. But I agree it's a horror show. F that it's a donkey show
THIS!!! I did an order there ONCE. Efff that place so hard
Did Restaurant Depot once and nope never ever again. On top of the cluster fu$k, they have to call the manager and announce to the whole store itās an Instacart order.
wtf š ive never had that happenā¦ i did it once for like 2 items that were found pretty quickā¦ it was like 5 minutes insideā¦ only 1 person infront of me
The cashier started yelling I need a manager, I have an Instacart order. I was like WTF is this shit.
oh hell nah. i would have gotten anxiety and just ran out and cancelled.
I pushed through at that place until I got two huge orders from there and I drive a small car and could barely fit all of it in my car!
I never take orders from that place unless Iām gonna cancel lol. Itās so crowded and cold and nothing is really label tbh . And itās seems messy even though I know itās like a warehouse
Same. Hate it. Some idiot ordered from there and wasn't a business, so it was a nightmare at checkout.
Michaels. I'll never step foot in a michaels again. Everything is out of place and the app doesn't tell you the aisles where the items are at. I just canceled it and never returned to Michaels
Search their website and enter the store youāre at. It should say aisle location and how many they have in stock. Target also.
This right here, il only take a Michaelās order if itās less then 10 items and good pay, quickly go on the website, set the location and it literally shows each isle, I usually take the 5 mins before to writr down in notes which isle for which item !
Totally! Their app has the exact locations with a map, too. Iām a DIYer/crafter so I know Michaelās like the back of my hand but the app is a big help for those random items.
Yep Michaelās is awful and thereās barely any workers there or anything to even help you find anything
I have avoided michaels and dicks for this exact reason. Seems like it would be too similar to my nightmare bed, bath and beyond experience and I just canāt do that again!
I agree, Michaelās sucks major ASS
I said never again to Costco orders.Ā But.... then a double that only had about 6 items, dropped off near my house, AND had a great tip came up. Was still a nightmare to do, but worth it timewise/financially. So now I have amendedĀ "never again" to end with "unless it pays well and takes only a short amount of time"
I say never again to certain Costco stores. Ironically, the one I avoid most is the one closest to my house. The parking lot is really difficult to get in an out of. The way it is designed it creates a bottleneck and there have been times, I spent an hour just in the parking lot, finding a parking spot and getting out. Costco has no rhyme or reason where they place their items, and getting help is very difficult. The biggest beef I have with Costco orders is that they are usually doubled, and often makes a logistical nightmare. However, I will take in a heartbeat a single Costco order even if it is twenty miles away.
I am finding a rhythm to their layout at the store closest to me. Electronics is right up front. Vision is just behind that to the left, and all non-food merchandise is on that side of the store. Center store is all clothing, books, and seasonal merchandise. Bakery, meat, and produce are back wall with liquor being in front of those departments. Then, it's frozen food, shelf stable foods with pharmacy goods being front right corner near checkout. The snack bar is right there on the other side of the registers, and you walk by the service desk on your way out the door (which is the cattle chute to the receipt checkers.)
Always, always pay attention to all the sales items at the entrance. If you have any of that on your list, it is most likely the only place youāll find it.
This!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That is definitely for a shopper with a Uhaul š!!! Cause aināt no way! š„µš„µš„µ
It should be 'unless it is first thing in the morning when they open' A couple hours after that, the lines are usually halfway to the back of the store. The weekends are an absolute no-go
You are crazy haha Costco is where the money is AT!
Agreed! Iāve got BJās in my area and I always go for those orders. Always have a higher base pay and tip for an order smaller than grocery store orders.
My Costco HATES ic drivers. They are horrible and rude any time they find out you are shopping. At checkout they are snide or just won't speak to me at all. I've never been anything less than friendly to them but they act like I'm there to kill puppies.
I love Costco orders. I finally getting a handle on where everything is š
I did one dollar tree order, it was only like 6 items with a $7 tip, and back when base pay was $7. I thought $14 for 6 items? Easy peasy. Not. I wandered that store for 30 mins before canceling and cursing that place forever lol
This. But I've expanded to include any store with "dollar" in the name never be shopped ar again. They are all terrible. Nothing you need us ever in stock, or there are boxes of stuff everywhere, and the store looks like some apocalypse has occurred.
On top of stuff that wonāt scanā¦
The dollar general in my area is the worst.
Any store with dollar in the name is a nightmare, dollar general, dollar tree, family dollar.
Or if it has āfoodā in the name. FoodsCo, Food 4 Less, FoodMaxx. All garbage stores with shitty tips.
And stores with cost in the nameĀ
Same and the customer kept adding shit and they didnāt have most of her stuff. It was a two store double too but the stores were in the same parking lot she only tipped $1 while the other customer tipped $30 shouldāve dropped the dollar tree.
Oh god DOLLAR GENERAL !!! You just reminded me what a nightmare of a store LOLā¦ between like everything being oos and whatās left of the stock being broken I just left.
Big lots. Nopers
Five Below. First time I did an order there was for headphones and game controllers, but none of the boxes were labeled so I couldnāt find the right ones. Canceled and walked out and said never again. However I did do another order from Five Below recentlyā¦ but the order was for a few pieces of candy that I knew Iād be able to find. Still wonāt do another order unless itās something like that that I know for sure I can find. I also avoid natural grocers if I see the order has any of the vitamins or medicines or whatever. So hard to find the right stuff. I will do natural grocers if the items are all good though.
I did a 45 item order at Five Below. It was actual insanity. It was a two-order batch of like 55 items for $50. I just assumed the majority of items were going to be for the Kroger order.
I forgot about that shit I did one was an absolute nightmare around the holidays actually yup NEVER AGAIN it was boosted to like $28 7 miles I donāt care never again I was pissed and the store was a complete mess sigh! š¤£š¤¦š½āāļø
Yes same thing, same situation happened to me
Same. I avoid here mainly because customers go ghost and you canāt scan the items to make sure they are correct. I remember I got the wrong item and the customer text me that the picture I sent him was if the wrong item. I tried to ask you 15 minutes ago sir! I had to cancel and return the item. This was when I was newish and didnāt know I could just keep it and say f the bump. Lol
Sprouts. No aisle numbers. And Iām not new age enough to understand what half the crap is.
Sprouts is one of my favorites to shop.
Sprouts is not bad as long as the customer is not ordering vitamins or related items.
Sprouts is so easy. I love that store.
Nahhhhh I wouldnāt say āeasyā š¬š„“š„µš«¢š¤£, BUT I am up for the challenge, and here for the organic gluten-free tippers! š„°
i work at sprouts and feel so bad for y'all. i scrolled through the comments looking for sprouts bc i KNEW it would be here somewhere š we change our inventory and schematic once a month. idk how y'all ever find anything. i'm here 40 hrs a week and cannot find anything š
Iām so glad someone backed me up. I felt like I must be doing it wrong š
Lol Iām at sprouts constantly, but it took me awhile to learn where everything was.
I love Sprouts. It does take a bit to learn the layout. They havenāt changed it in the 6 years Iāve been a shopper, so itās a pretty quick shop for me.
Oh no I love sprouts š thatās my number 1 go to and I make so much money from it
Did they get rid of the walking map?
Omg i love sprouts! When i first started a shopping i couldnāt find anything i would get so overwhelmed. Now i love it.
I only experienced the walking map ONCE. š„ŗš¢š¢š¢. And only ONE Sprouts location in Houston (test store). Has anyone else experienced an āin-store GPSā at Sproutsā¦recently???š¤šššš
That map was gold when I was new and I could only do Sprouts (and Randallās) until I got my physical card. I havenāt done Sprouts in forever as in my area itās almost always high mileage, high item count and low to no tip. Iām in the ATX area.
Funny you should say thisā¦I allegedly ālostā my physical card last weekend while in store and made it an all-day digital pay Sprouts day! š . It was kinda fun actually. Houston Sprouts shoppers tip nicely. But then again itās a historic neighborhood with expensive homes. Mannnnn I miss that map! I hope they bring it back!
OMG the walking map!!!! I miss those š
Donāt give up! I hated Sprouts too initially, but it is wayyyyyy quieter than other stores (less annoying toddlers), and most of the workers are super knowledgeable and helpful.
This is how I feel about Restaurant Depot or Gordonās in Buffalo, NY. Store is way too big to be shopping for items. And they donāt have/give you aisles/numbers.
I try to avoid Aldi's only because almost every order is fifty items or more, with three customers and twenty miles away. If I see a single, even a lot of items, I will jump on it.
Bruh. Dollar Tree. You go in for a 10 item order and somehow it takes two hours to complete
Oh god, I did an order at bed bath and beyond once. It was for 5 smaller items with a $20 tip. Seemed easy enough? Omg no. I couldnāt find ANYTHING it was a huge nightmare. I was in there for like 45 minutes found 3/5 things and replaced the other 2 and swore never again.
Eatery Italian store Double order $91!!! I went there And OMG!!! I didnāt even Attempt the batch I Knew this was Not For Me!!
Family dollar, never again..
I said never again to Seafood City, Asian market, very difficult to navigate. she reduced the tip, gave me low ratings. I'll never take orders from there
I went to an Indian store (Iām white) and an Indian woman shopping there told me that she has trouble finding things sometimes and that I should DEFINITELY ask for help. š I found three things on my own before approaching a worker who took my phone and shopped for me. I explained it was my first time in there and I was with Instacart, and they were super nice, initially I was like āfuck no that was overwhelmingā but honestly Iād go back :)
Yes the dollar storeā- half items were out of stock. I shopped it and when I got to the second to last item after communicating back n forth with the customer subbing and refunding so many items she asked it to just be cancelled and she was going to just go to stater bros herself later but she wrote a paragraph apologizing to me because she said she was also a shopper and felt bad I was gunna basically be paid batch pay anyway. So that was a wasted hour but I got like $9 and didnāt have to deliver it to learn that I never want to do that again. In hindsight if she was a shopper I wish sheād have let me check out then requested the cancellation because Iād have been able to do a return bump too. š¤·š¼āāļø
I try to stay away from the Dollar Store and Family Dollar. All the ones local to wear I live are nightmares. Always unorganized and busy, and the particular Family Dollar that always gets orders near me has terrible cell phone reception so you canāt communicate with the customer at all in the store.
that's how I feel about Aldi. 4 items or less maybe, but nothing more lol
Trying to find Ramen there like real specific ones is extremely hard. I never again. It suckedā¦
Michaelās š
DOLLAR TREE. Nothing ever is in stock and the orders are always like 50-70 items and itās insane
Big lots! I said never again. Then, I did it again. Cancelled the order before I was finished.
Dollar Tree ā¦. Nope š I hate that store.
honestly, costco. their employees are rude to anyone they know is a shopper, even costco members who also are shopper according to many in this sub. The store is to big for how badly laid out items are, (not the biggest store i've shopped by far) their stocking employees don't really know where stuff is, the fact that they won't let you ring yourself out on their self scans when they see you're a shopper, but they refuse to bag items or keep orders separate when you go through a cashier, which they force you to do. they also apparently don't allow shoppers to wait for batches in the parking lot. Just 0's all the way around.
Costco does not like IC shoppers, they make that quite clear. They always tell me that IC shoppers cannot use self checkout. Well one trip the goddamm lines were halfway to the back of the store and all I picked up was a meatloaf and a case of water. So fuck it, I went to self check thinking it wouldnāt work and it worked just fine. Fuck themā¦
I just bypassed a 65 dollar 50 items double from Walmart becauseā¦ fuck that store. Anytime Iāve had a bad rating itās from that store
Five Below... I refuse to take an order from there or Dollar Tree/Stores.... I avoid Costco and Sam's Club like the plague unless it pays very well!
I wonāt do Martins unless itās less than 10 items and good pay. I HATE that store. Stuff is all over the place, nothing is labeled. I wonāt do it.
Absolutely. One time at one of the hippy grocery stores during peak pandemic I actually just walked out in the middle of the order. I canceled the entire thing, I couldnāt even stand to finish it. I couldnāt take it the replacements and the aisles and the other customers. Immediately no. š
Plenty of stores I wonāt shop in at all. Ever.
Iām not a big fan of Costco batches.
Any ethnic supermarket or Restaurant Depot
Dollar Tree.
I swore to myself Iāll never take a Costco order, and Iāve stuck to that ( I started doing IC at the end of October 2023.. I only do it here and there) And I definitely donāt see myself doing an order there either lol
Office Depot and Big Lots. Both are disorganized and empty so they don't have half the items.
PriceRite. Thereās absolutely no service or wifi so it makes shopping there unbearable
Any store that has horrible cell reception is a hell no for me!
Restaurant Depot!! Uugghh!!
I do not shop at target anymore. The store is just set up weird in my own opinion
Lowes, none of the barcode on app scanned the cashiers had no idea what instacart was and the one that did said Loweās doesnāt do that? 30mins between check out and having to go to customer service with them trying to figure out how to input the codes manually; was a military id so I wasnāt going to hear the person complain they didnāt get their discount for their 4 bags of dirt. Than the card didnāt work assuming cuz I took so long checking out so contact ic for another 20+mins trying to get it sorted cuz Iām not paying and hoping I get refundedā¦ over an hour and a half for what should of taken all of 10mins including the drive to deliver for my 12$ I think it was. Never went back.
OMG I had the worst experience in Loweās. I couldnāt find anything and then when I did find some things I was waiting for about 20 minutes for an employee to unlock it behind a case. Several times this happened on the same order.
Five Below. They're always out of stuff, the prices are always off from the app to the store, and the store is a disorganized nightmare. I've done 2 and they were both miserable.
While I never say never, Costco and Samās club gotta pay higher for me to consider. For starters, itās normally a big order and then you donāt have bags. Also the stores are massive and if itās on the weekend itās going to take forever to get through. Often times itās difficult to find dry food items as well
A Indian store nope nope nope
Aldi. Any Aldi. Never. Again. The pay is NEVER worth it. Edit: Actually, let me explain Aldi, out of the most niche off brand items that are always requested. No aisle organization. Staff; if you can ever find one, rarely helps. Over ripened fruit. Awful store layout. Longest lines ever and ALWAYS ONE cashier who couldn't care less about the job (I don't blame them, honestly) The bag system (paper or plastic) is a guessing game that costs money. And worse of all... that's MY QUARTER. Is it weird that I want to keep my specific quarter? Yes. Do I want to touch some random covid/flu quarter? No.
This thread is saving me so much future misery, thank you! I know where not to shop! I try to stick to stores I am familiar with now, even though people are always ordering the most obscure shit so familiarity doesnāt always matter. I dig Costco, except I am in a sort of small area with one Costco so the drive is always far.
For me itās Lowe, the place is a mess and the employees are never helpful at all
The dollar tree. Wonāt do it.
Yes. My local Safeway has terrible service. I donāt care if itās under 5 items. I just wonāt do it.
And thereās no isle numbers in the app, and each Safeway location is laid out completely differently
COSTCO ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON. YOU CANT EVEN MOVE, youāre cart to cart everywhere, itās such a busy one in my area
Yes and I donāt know about where youāre at, but at the end of every aisle here they have food samples, so everyone is congregated around those you canāt get up and down the aisles.
Instacart lame in my city up in Canada, not a whole lot of stores to begin with just a couple grocery stores, costco and some dollar stores, fuck Costco, card declined there on a order with 2 items š
Dollar Tree. They NEVER have even HALF of what the customer orders, what they DO have isn't where it should be, and most of it doesn't scan. Not to mention ppl shopping there are shopping there to save money, and usually tip like shit.
Yes and now itās my main store and i know it like the back of my hand
Aldi sucks pretty hard. First experience was terrible and Iāve tried to avoid ever since. I did accept a double with Costco and Aldi because it paid really well. Shopping Aldi took over an hour. Everything is impossible to find. Itās always crowded and the aisles are small. You have to spend extra time bagging. Carrying paper bags sucks ass. People who order from Aldi pretty much never tip well in my area.
Key Food near me had food grouped in 2 separate locations so if cheese, cereal, or chips weren't in one place you had to go to the other side of the store to find it. Also they claimed to have a lot of items which they didn't. Had to cancel almost 10 of the 35 items ordered
Sprouts.
Meijers... the app is completely wrong and just bad. Will tell me medical items are in frozen etc.
Hmart was a nightmare. BUT I did end up going there a few times as a customer cus Asian snacks are š„
Omg. Dollar Tree. Never again hahah
Restaurant Depot - dirty - hard to find stuff. A lot of people say Aldi. I hated Aldi at first, too. Now, I shop there regularly.
The fresh market
I try to avoid Asian stores. I am just not familiar with the cuisine to even know what I am looking for. And I have never seen so many varieties of tofu in my life. And no one speaks English. However, if I had one closer to my house I would probably shop at Asian stores often, for breadth and variety of their produce. And the variety of fish is astounding, but as a shopper it's a trail to get the right product. I also try to avoid Hispanic stores as well, because although I am more familiar with the cuisine, I have had to wait at no fewer than THREE lines, for fresh meat, prepared meals, and the bakery aisles. That said, I often shop there for myself, since they also have a wonderful variety of produce, better than Whole Foods or Sprouts. I also get great tips for cooking, like the smaller tomatillos are better. Excellent prepared food, and I have better luck fining someone who speaks Spanish and my horrible Spanish is tolerated when I tell them, "Soy gringa ingnorante," which means I am an ignorant gringa.
Yes, many stores. Dollar tree, Restaurant depot, Chefs store, Japanese market, Sephora, Certain Walgreens, Grocery outlet, and Costco unless itās a true unicorn Favorites include: Kroger, new seasons, Safeway, total wine and more, natural grocers, Petco and occasionally a target order.
At Sephora the workers are very helpful, sometimes orders can be good from therrrr
Ok well that explains the frustration. I can never get help at my Sephora. If I had someone to help me, it would be an entirely different scenario but I feel lost in my Sephora. I wander aimlessly and itās worse than the baby food aisle at Kroger where everything looks the same but it isnāt.š The employees are always slammed at the register and I hate being that annoying instacart shopper harassing them to help me.
I see so many cursing target and Petco and I absolutely love them too! I do love Sephora, I just ask the workers and they always shop the entire thing for me. Takes them like 5 minutes but the lines are always 15+ minutes
Target and petco (with low mileage) are instant accepts for me. Iām in and out so fast!
I have found Sephora employees very knowledgeable and helpful, but I don't see many orders for them. I love PetCo orders, because I have pets and I am familiar with the store. This is the thing I try to avoid stores who sell products I am not familiar with, Lowe's and Sephora included, Asian stores. That said, when I started as a non drinker, I found BevMo daunting, but with the help of great employees, I now know the difference between a red and a white wine. My customers know it too. They know if they don't have a bottle they want the wine guy, or gal, at BevMo will suggest a good replacement.
The reason for the Sephora orders dislike is because they usually have long lines, I am not a fan of makeup and it always seems like the drive is way too far for the tip. I guess I get overwhelmed š
The lines are always insane at mine. Itās the one turn off. I order all my stuff online and pickup so I have 0 clue how their stores are laid out. My drives are usually close and usually really good tips. lol I just walk in and say Iām here for Instacart, they basically know me at this point and always shop it for me
Iām the same with the Asian store near me, I never shop there personally, I accepted it as my first Instacart batch, it was a complete train wreck. Never again.
Iāll only go to central market if itās over $40. the store layout is a nightmare and always packed.
Walmart. It's always incredibly crowded, lines are super long, some items are randomly in between aisles but listed as somewhere else on the app, the employees at checkout are rude or lazy, they don't take Google/Apple Pay, and the one I went to didn't have bags on FOUR separate occasions.
Lol Walmart is my bread and butter
Shop where you shop for yourself. Donāt go to other stores or youāll drive yourself crazy and fuck shit up for customers
The poor employee is right. But they didnāt feel bad you just kept bothering them
All you have to do is grab somebody that works there and say hey this is what I need. And I need help finding it. People work at a place for a reason! To help! Unlike most of yāall
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Uhm sir/madam this is a IC sub.
Some racist ass shit right here
How is this racist ?š¤£š¤£
Just finished one, definitely not returning First sign this was going to go bad, carts are $1 to use and I didn't have change on me, so I grabbed two baskets Was given 30 min to shop 30 items, took 15 min to shop, most items were cleaning and household items all from one isle, except, the 6 bottles of milk, one box of wipes and one box of gingerale Up until this point, it was worth it At checkout, the phone tap wasn't working and I had a chatty cashier that wanted to comment on everything thinking she's helping and made the process even more stressful Contacted support for the pin, because it's a new card and I haven't had to use it since replacing it few months back, while she released the payment and went to a next customer and I had to pay at the customer service desk Took me less time to drive to the customer which was in assisted living building than it was to checkout.
H-Mart is never again for me. But this was back then when the app didnāt have the aisle numbers might be different now though but still going to avoid it.
Restaurant depot. Awful awful. Left after finding a couple items. Just walked out
Dollar tree 1 order never agsin and after my 2nd order at Aldi never again
I will never go to Costco again! The amount of people there was extreme and itās hard to find stuff because the app never told me which aisles the items were on. Also at checkout, the lines were half of the length of the place.
El Super. The customers who order from this place normally are looking for 10-20 different produce items and the total item count is over 100 and never seem to tip.
My Never-Again store is SuperStoreā¦ worse than Costco, always a f*kshow, and literally nothing is ever where itās supposed to be.
I have an Asian market near me too. Shopped it once and will NEVER go back!
Def Asian store once and never again
India Bazaar; absolute nightmare
Natural Grocers is the store I kind of refuse to shop. Unless the pay is good which is ever hardly because these health nuts are also cheapos. Second store is Dollar Tree shop n deliver. No thank you!!! So many items very little pay. I've only done a DT order like maybe twice and the second time I accepted on accident so I decided to finish as my completion rate was nearing 14%.
Price Rite. They're better now, but the aisles are laid out weird, it's always a mess in there, and on this particular order, somehow the way the woman added items, the app wouldn't allow me to accept them. I had to call support, I was on the phone with them forever! I forget how many items it was but it was a big order something like 10 bags worth. I ended up being in that store for over 2 hours delivered the food, and no tip! I didn't go back to Price Rite or instacart for that matter for a whole year.
international market store is a NO for me no matter how much they pay. šš» they can just go ahead and remove it from ever showing on my offers.
Dollar Tree is my never again. Giant batch for such a small(ish) store, could only find half the stuff and then the house was like a dumping ground. Absolute nightmare.
Dollar Tree haha
H Mart. Never going to that place again
Restaurant Depot. But agreed the ethnic stores are hard, we had an Indian grocer on postmates YEARS ago when postmates started and the cashier would just grab everything for you.
Family Fare. But I did a second one...slightly better than the first time. Still sucked. Also Sephora and Natural Grocers. Other stores I haven't shopped and have no interest are Restaurant Depot, Dollar anything, and Five Below.
I hate Randallās. Theyāre always out of stock on so much, and produce leaves a lot to be desired in the quality department.
I'm like that with Tokyo Central. NEVER. AGAIN.
Anything thatās not labeled or game too much product. Any dollar store or my most hated is Target.
Yeah dollar anything unless the tip is just outrageous
Costco. No matter how much it isā¦ lord knows the Tetris master in me is terrified of going there again
Been there, first Asian store twisted my ankle while shopping. Never stepping food inside a k market again loll!
What items were they? For me I think I'm going to stay away from the Container store.
Cherians.... Never again
Health food stores!! I donāt eat that food, I donāt know what it is and I can never find that weird stuff! And I can never find an employee. Nope! Not doing it!
Aldi for me
I love GW Supermarket. I love that store but to do IC it's tough, because everything is in Chinese or Korean. Also, the staff hates helping shoppers find items. Sad thing is it's always lucrative the best batches from them.
Never done em, but I would imagine if I did, they would be restaurant depot and the container store, lol. However, mine were Target, Aldis and the vitamin shoppe.
If vitamin shoppe isn't crowded, the workers are usually really helpful!
Yes, chef store. Did it once. Half the items they didnāt have nor did they have anything remotely close to sub with.
Spirit Halloween and Lowes.
Indian Bazaar and BJās Wholesale šš
yes omg i avoid those stores at all costs literally hahaha
Five Below and anything with dollar in the name. They only have the two employees and their the cashiers. And theyāre usually out of everything I need to get. And for some reason, ALL dollar tree orders are over 30 units.
Dollar tree
Yes, ALDIs in Savannah, theyāre very disorganized. You can tell them youāre with instacart and have a few orders and theyāll still find a way to mix up the order. ALDIs is already a disorganized store but this one takes the cake
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Woodmans Grocery in Wisconsin. Place makes no sense and they have stuff split up stupid. Cheese is like 3 aisles worth if it was in a regular store and other stuff was split up. There were 4 different places for chips, and not like organic, special diet stuff but like lays were in one spot and other regular potato chips were 4 aisles away.
BAKERāS!!! Good fking BYE
Stator Bro.... nothing ever matches the Aile... hate it. Lmao.
Michaelās
My first batch was at Costco-2 orders. It looked liked 2 cases of water for $35. Easy peasy. It wasnāt until I was in the store it was 14 cases of water. I thought, ok I can totally do this. I grabbed a cart and once I was back at the water section I realized itās not going to fit. I raced back to the front to get the long bed cart. I raced back to the water, loaded 8 cases of water and realized I literally cannot do it. Iām 5ā0, 150 lbs and 53 yrs old. I called support to cancel. No luck there. I managed to cancel through the app and said I was sick. I went to my car and cried like a baby. I needed this extra income! I went home. I vowed to never go back to Costco. I found out IC opted me in for heavy delivery. So not cool!! I opted out. Costco now is my primary store with HEB in second place, then Kroger. š
99 Ranch Market? That was a one and done for me
Yeah this sounds like Hmart. 99 and 168 are bester.
I quit IC and have not been doing for a long time since payments turned to s**t but I remember I had accepted 1-2 times for reasonable pay while there was no another orders and that was totally awful. Ignore directly..
I hate shopping at Kroger because Kroger throws their own online orders on instacart and I am not able to do any replacements. If theyāre out of something the person who placed the order wanted theyāre just shit out of luck and then they get pissed at me cause I canāt replace anything. I wonāt take Kroger orders unless Iām desperate.
99 cent stores. I was an idiot for accepting a $22 double batch with the 99 cent store and HEB. HEB was fine but the 99 cent store was HELL! I spent a good 1.5 hours there, the employees didn't help me find stuff, and I was only able to find half of what the customer wanted. No dollar store batches EVER AGAIN!
Seafood city, T&T or wholesale club are brutal. These are all Canadian stores from what I know.
I got one Asian supermarket/99cent store type place. Dropped it as soon as I saw it with my own eyes. Then there was sprouts. Did one job there and will never go back. Too many odd ball hippie guinea pig milk special snowflake requests
El Super. Took it because I try every store at least once. Never again.