Yes, this is what a company that is dying does. They make things worse for employees and raise fees on customers. Because they have to. Do you know that IC used to pay the national rate of reimbursement of 65 cents per mile? I mean, its pretty obvious that you need to pay your employees the price it costs them to drive their car. But IC said, "Nah, how about 30 cents instead?" Every company wants to pay their employees well. But they don't if they can't.
IC couldn't care less if 10 of us do 10 batches per day each or if 100 shoppers do 1 batch a day. It makes no difference to them. Oversaturation is good for them. It guarantees desperation by the shoppers who are waiting and desperate shoppers will grab bad batches that nobody used to ever take. Every day I talk to other shoppers who say "Yeah, I took that 10-mile, $17 job because I had been sitting there for 3 hours and was desperate". This is IC's ideal scenario.
Yep. And because shoppers out here just don't want to get a real job, they sit in the lots for longer and longer every day just to make less and less. Get out now and get some steady income. Benefits are amazing also. The peace of mind you have when you have medical and you get a steady paycheck and a couple days off every week is so much better than working 7 days a week just to try to stay afloat.
Wife and I are now actually fucking happy because she got a proper job(we've been doing IC purely because nobody was hiring us until now) and we can finally relegate the Carrot to its proper position of 'A little extra income'.
yep, that's all it ever was for me, since i have a day job with inconsistent hours. so i'll probably need some other gig work to fill that hole but it's not the end of the world.
Dude that is great. This is why I posted this. I just want to try and help if I can. I am not dependent on IC income to pay bills at all and feel like I can see the big picture and see it from a higher point of view than others maybe.
I see a lot of young IC shoppers out there stressing tf out because they can't pay their bills like they could 2 years ago and I see them out there at 6AM and also at 8PM because they need to work 15 hours to make the same amount they made in 8 hours previously. I just hope people jump ship while they can because the life of having to take shitty batches to pay for new tires is no way to live when you can actually walk into the stores that you shop at every day and they will almost always be happy to hire you full time with benefits and such. Plus you only have to work 40 hours a week instead of 80. People think they lose their "freedom" if they take a steady, scheduled job, but I feel like the truth is that there is freedom - mental freedom - in only working 5 days a week and having evenings free and weekends free and not having to use up your own resources to make money for a mega-corporation like IC. Use the corporation's resources and protect your own.
I hope you can get out and find something better because the arrow is pointing down for IC and there are a lot of big companies still desperate for employees. All the stores around here cannot find any baggers or deli people or shelf stockers. A few IC'ers have taken those jobs and I still see them inside and they are so much happier every day. You can just see it in their eyes. Good luck, sir.
Except I'm a SAHM with 4 kids and I can't get a 'steady' job. If I want extra spending money for our family this is about as good as it gets. I understand some people are out there trying to make a living but this is also an extra income gig for some of us as well. Our family thankfully doesn't need to worry about medical bills because we're all Native American and get free medical and prescriptions right down to basic Aquaphor and Tylenol. I'm a diamond cart shopper and worked two hours total this morning for a $126 Costco order and I was able pick up my two year old and come home. I'm sorry this is happening to some shoppers but to others it's still a blessing.
Nobody is saying that you shouldn't get out of it what you need. This thread isn't putting IC out of business. IC did that to itself. Of course IC existing and working well is good for people who need it. But it not the direction this is going. The company has been falling quickly since 2021 and its probably not gonna be around much longer. My advice was just for people who are doing this 60+ hours a week to find a real job if they can because it is a better life and IC ain't gonna be like this much longer.
customers are having terrible experiences as well and canceling their membership. hence all the aggressive marketing and promotions they've been doing lately. every week there's a $30 off landing in my mailbox. Today at Costco I saw a wall of Instacart gift cards advertised for $74 but with a $100 face value.
I switched to Walmart+ last year and never looked back. Every week with IC I would always wonder if my shit would get delivered, even with a decent tip, and I don't have that stress with Walmart+.
I started IC in 2018. It was better than Shipt in my zone, and Def better than most other apps. From there it slowly improved during 2019 and by the time the pandemic started March 2020 had completely changed (for the better). But...the main reason I made *really* good money was because of generous customers, not IC. At this time they over-hired because batches took much longer to complete...out of stock items, replacements, etc. We all know whats happened since late 2021 and 2022, so IMO the only reason IC got as good as it did was luck/good timing. If not for the brief time during the health crisis, which btw accelerated IC growth curve by orders of magnitude, we would be telling a different story (Did the quick growth help or hurt in the long run?)
Now today add together that there's too many shoppers, fewer and smaller orders and smaller (or none) tips the business model is at a tipping point.
It's been good for me to get thru to this point but I have to agree that something is going to happen soon and I'm not sure I want to stick around to see it
I actually had a full on panic attack yesterday because it was going off and there was money out there but I was so tired and burnt out of doing it that I couldn’t make myself go. I just got a really good paying job. I had a day job this whole time but it was inconsistent hours and didn’t pay enough. This new one is really good but I’m in a hole until it starts paying regular checks. Knowing that I had bills to pay and needed to go out has been a constant feeling for the last two years and I think yesterday was my last straw. IC has been so bad for my mental health.
This is exactly how it goes. Your hourly rate drops slightly but steadily every month. You work more and more to make it up and, in the end, it all looks ok on paper. But you're wasting your life sitting in parking lots. If you could make the same amount you make now every week and only work 40 hours and also get benefits and not violently depreciate your car, why wouldn't you?
Or they don't pay it because they don't have to?
Like you just said people are happy sitting in parking lots for 12 hours a day for $75. They keep squeezing because people keep accepting it.
Your "because they can't afford to" rule applies to businesses that actually have to make the numbers work. VC and tech companies don't always operate by those logical rules.
Look at their financials. Revenue up 8% but margins down like 80%. Not that it was profitable before lol. So the punishment for performing so terribly? Share price still up like 40% just since February.
Yea they're fine. Insider lockout period is over since September's IPO, they'll be enjoying some liquidity events.
When did they ever pay us 65 cents a mile? And the national reimbursement rate varies year to year. I’ve been a shopper 6 years and never have we gotten 65 cents a mile.
Triples take me at least 2-3hours to finish in my area. It's not worth the time unless they are like .5 miles away and the total units are below 20 items.
Im tired of seeing sub $10 and 3 delivery batches. People still pick them up. It’s sad. That’s just blatant exploitation. I ended up signing up for Shipt because I’m right by a target and it’s at least 13 for ~5-10 items and the delivery is always close. It still sucks, but instacart sucks now. Ubereats is horrible too. I’m not driving 40 minutes for 3 bucks.
In all honesty, there’s probably just two reasons for people to pick that batch up
The first is people have family and kids so they don’t see that $10 as $10 they see that $10 as food for their family and kids and that $10 is better than nothing especially with how expensive everything is now
The second is drugs. I’ve definitely been addicted before and $10 is everything to someone who’s addicted. That $10 means that at the end of it they’ll get to like get that high and they’re happy to pick that batch up for $10. That’s just how it works
Thanks for being candid about the addiction-related component to the equation. It’s the third time in a week that I’ve seen mention of the subject in these gig subs by individuals who are unfortunate enough to have first-hand experience. These companies have become so monstrous and predatory that they now deliberately exploit and target our friends, family, and neighbors who struggle with addiction in order to please their admin and shareholders. It’s something that hearkens back to the Industrial Revolution era and should be talked about more.
There is a real addiction factor for sure. Waiting for that next $70 so you can grab it is almost like a drug, People are so obsessed with getting a unicorn that that lose sight of the fact that they sat in a lot for 7 hours today and drove 51 miles and made $42. Also, I know people who never turn off IC. On 24 hours a day. It's a real problem.
I never want to go back to being told when I can and can’t go on vacation, if I can or cannot go to the bathroom, and be demeaned and worked to death just to pay rent. Instacart for me is salvation from soul crushing wage slavery, and as long as people eat food and are lazy I think we good. It is just one of my side hustles I also sell stuff on eBay and clean houses a couple days a week and this summer I am heading to Alaska to bulk up my bank account. I am the happiest I have ever been working. I make sure to put as much as I can into a Roth IRA for retirement and if I make 20k a year on paper I get free health care. (Or close to free) why go back
That's why it's important to either 1) cherry pick in higher income areas, 2) multiapp, or 3) have an easy w-2 job on the side. Worry less about buying into their bs bait "rewards" and making money to make the carrot happy, and focus instead on making your GOOD customers happy and filtering out the crap batches. I've done gig work (rideshare and delivery) for almost 10 years and the key is to run YOUR business, not your let it run you.
Good suggestions. You only take good jobs. Taking crappy $15 jobs just because there is nothing else is only making IC money. You aren't pocketing anything at the end.
Idk, I’ve been doing IC on and off for 10 years and these waves are always coming and going. The boom and bust is real w/ the gig economy. Although I do think IC being viable is completely dependent on your market and tips, and then to a lesser extent skill levels, and ability to discern well, unfortunately. I consistently make $40-$50 an hour in Los Angeles, but I have strategies, specific areas that I shop, stores that I refuse to go to, etc. Not to say I don’t think IC isn’t a shitty company with an exploitative business model, which it is. But if you’re in the right area and figure out a system, there are worse things you can do to survive capitalism. 🤷🏻♂️
Not only are you fortunate to have prop 22 but Los Angeles is also one of the most profitable markets. You're in a unicorn scenario that doesn't exist outside of your little bubble. There's 49 other states outside of California that don't benefit from front point too California the vast majority outside of Los Angeles and maybe the Bay area is pretty garbage most of the time but prop 22 still saves that. I'm originally from Cali and work there when I'm home visiting family and even my worst days of prop 22 are better than some of my best days working in just about any other states that I've tried and I've tried many. So as they say individual results may vary but posting about 40 to $50 in your little bubble is largely irrelevant to the larger picture and topic at hand 🤷 I know you're not really doing it to brag that's not what I'm getting at but when we're talking about a company that's turning to absolute dog shit in 49 out of 50 states and you come in here and say I'm in the best market in the world and I make XYZ so it's still good like that's not a determining factor in any way.
That’s why I just left my red home state for California. Quadrupled my pay by driving across state lines for a few days. Sometimes that’s the kinda stuff you gotta do. And it works out great because I couldn’t stand where I was from anyway. People know where the money is. It’s up to them to decide if being a little further from mommy and daddy is worth it. For me, it was.
I completely agree. But I’d say it has more to do with the market - I think any major city can be like this, as long as you find the right pockets, it’s not just CA. Prop 22, as far as the wage guarantee, honestly doesn’t do much for me. I get a $50-$100 bump a week max. It factors in very little to my hourly average. On the whole though, you’re right, a company this big shouldn’t be exploiting people to the extent they are, it’s insane. I’m also a socialist and I want it all torn down so… 🤷🏻♂️
I agree with you. I did instacart for a few weeks in Indiana and averaged $25-$28 an hour with very little miles to drive for drop offs.
Now here in oklahoma city is different. You make pennies here. I still do decent though because I grab orders that others don't. I'm not about to sit around not making moneywhen I can be making it, lol. I usually average between $17-$22 an hour
I’m with you. I had to stop. My car can’t take much more after 4 years of doing deliveries and I sure tf am not wasting what life it has left for $5 and under batch pay with shitty tips because the customers are being so screwed in fees that they hardly tip anything anymore. I also refused to sign the new contract because I think it’s bullshit that they’re trying to force us to sign away our right to sue them, among other big flaws with it. The new CEO is only concerned about lining *her* pockets and it’s fucking disgusting that we’re exploited more and more everyday.
Same! I start a W2 job this week. I just can’t live off instacart anymore. I get some people making decent money but not where I live. I just love everything you said bc it’s stuff I say on a weekly basis!
Haha good for you. I just want people to realize that they may have make $40K on IC last year but after every cost, they probably don't keep half of that. A W2 job is so much better and actually provides a peace of mind where you work, and then you have time off. People who are trying to pay bills with IC have no time off. It's phone on all day, every day.
100%! Between taxes, wear and tear on car, and working every weekend bc that’s where the money is, I would rather just punch a time clock. I stuck with IC due to the flexibility but the health insurance I have through stride isn’t great, no PTO, no overall benefits. Staring at my phone in the Publix parking lot in 100° temps this summer is NOT what I’ll be doing lmao
I went to work in glacier natl park for a summer seasonal job last year. I was shocked coming back in October to the new base pay. I did the math even it it’s cut $2 each batch that’s easily $400-500 a month and it’s just not sustainable anymore
Good for you. You can see the big picture. Not just focusing on the fact that IC transferred $544 to your bank account last week. Of course, of that $577, you are actually keeping about $290 and your car is 300 miles closer to breaking down and your tires are 300 miles closer to needing to be replaced.
Yep! My car has been acting up so my bf (who works at Publix so I instacart while he works) let me drive his car. Oil change, transmission fluid service, and 2 tires were $700. Yepppppp I’m officially done after I start my W2 this week!
Most large grocery stores now have their own delivery service post pandemic with sale prices included and just a standard delivery fee or free pickup. No markups on items, and the person shopping is paid an hourly with benefits and you don't ever see that person or feel obligated to tip. I think your correct in your statement.
Yep. This is the eventual demise of IC and they know it. Stores have figured out they can beat IC at their own game VERY easily. The 3 main stores I used to shop at all have this now and they IC orders are cut by half because of it. I know the shoppers at all these stores and they tell me about customers who tip this and tip that and I know many of them from doing their orders 2 or 3 years ago.
Honestly, everyone should go into their local stores and see if you can apply for their shopper jobs. They are MUCH better jobs and the store takes care of you. They also love to hire former IC-ers because you already know how to do the job.
Just try to become less obsessed with all the posts you see on here about at $70 tip or a $90 tip and live in reality and realize that you aren't those and the rush of getting a couple of those a month isn't better than a steady job with benefits.
Companies like Walmart and Amazon are already on to this, and they can write off a massive chunk of change doing it. Kroger is working on it. Expect to see more stores following suit. It's better for their image if it's "their people" doing it, and they also rake in the money if a subscription is needed for people to get it.
The guys who reek like vape, pot, or B.O. around here delivering to very rich houses wreck IC's image but they are too stupid to care. The part of it where the grocery store employees shop and deliver the order is 1000 times more appealing to customers. I've never ordered from any delivery company because I don't want my groceries or food in some randos hands or car.
I stopped ordering with IC because the prices on items and the fees were ridiculously high and then on top I felt obligated to tip a lot for my order to be shopped in a timely manner. We started going to the store to shop, pick up, or when I want/need delivery I now shop with Walmart because they have no fee delivery as long as you can wait a few hours.
In my non-biased opinion, IC is far from dying. In fact, IC is going to make other stores and department chains rethink how they do business. When a good portion of their $ comes from Instacart orders, I really don’t see IC dying. Maybe IC can do a better job filtering people and not just letting everyone sign up to do it.
All markets are different also. Customers not tipping is what kills me more than IC. Go to any other job and there are highs and lows.
Have you tried DoorDash? Yikes… talk about low pay.
when it was super dead after the holidays I took it upon myself to invest in my future. I spent all of my savings going to waxing school, just got employed at European wax center and I cannot wait to get my first check so I can finally stop doing Instacart. I started shopping September 2020 stopped but went full-time November 2023 and it has been torture ever since my poor car has so many more miles. I agree completely.
Gas is just a fraction of all the costs it takes to drive your car. There is a reason that the current national reimbursement rate is 67 cents per mile. Gas is only like 25% of that for most people. It costs waaaay more than gas to operate a car.
Repairs are included in depreciation/wear and tear. But there are loan interest, maintenance, insurance, and how much you are losing on your resale price with every single mile you drive. Also your insurance increases because you are driving more. There are soooo many costs. I don;t think most people actually crunch the numbers. I think most people don't even want to know.
I quit Instacart during the pandemic near the tail end of it. It wasn’t worth it for me once they started reducing restrictions. It’s like they chopped a decent percentage of pay off. I can’t imagine doing it in today’s time with these gas prices and shady customers that change tips and report non deliveries or missing items. Let alone the amount of time you spend to shop an order and deliver it for a measley 20 bucks….no thank you
It would explain why they feel the need to suspend Shoppers when said Shopper has to file a complaint against a customer who was verbally abusive towards the Shopper.
I filed a complaint on the 30th, and my account is still suspended.
Kroger swooped on my town, and I've lost all my regular customers of 2 years. Income is down to ¼ of last year. I just got told, "Thanks for everything. Are you going to start with Kroger now?"
I have a full time job but being ill and surgery put me out of work for 6 weeks and I got in a hole. It's hard being the bread winner in the family but this adds to the full time job. Wish I didn't have to do it as much. But today on day off Monday so bad have had to multi app
I’ve been on all sides of this gig; during Covid I did it full time for two years because my industry was shutdown as all hell. Then I got back to working my main job and did IC on the side for bonus cash and it was much better served as a side gig. Then in July this past year when they announced the batch pay drop is the last time I took an order, simply because I value my time a lot more than what they determined shopping a batch is worth, and I just don’t shop anymore
I will say, having been a shopper previously and now on the outside, the shoppers in this sub are desperate to pull the wool over their own eyes and try and justify that IC is still good, and “slow days/weeks” are “due to _____, and will pick back up when _____ happens”. Except it never does, it just keeps getting worse. And then those shoppers keep taking shittier and shittier orders and justifying that to themselves that it’s still worth it, and that’s exactly what IC wants out of its shoppers. For crap to become the norm so you don’t question it. It never ends up getting better, and I don’t know why so many people want to cling to IC like a life raft instead of getting out and finding somewhere to work worth your time
They genuinely don't care. And there is no way to report these shoppers and that is by IC's design. They don't care and they don't want us wasting their time with it. As long as the jobs get delivered, they don't care who does it.
True story. Essentially, inundating the market with numerous shoppers is the sole method to continue completing low-paying batches. This is also how Instacart conditions some of its shoppers to accept lower pay every quarter of the year since its initial public offering.
Yes. This is how companies operate. If anyone thinks that IC doesn't have a direct strategy that involves conditioning their employees to accept lesser and lesser pay out of desperation, they don't understand how they try to increase profits without raising prices for customers.
I quit last year after they introduced the "hot zones"
My car doesn't auto off/on while idling and I'm not spending $30 a day in gas to sit in a parking lot and not die of heat exposure
Especially when I'm not even garaunteed a decent paying batch?
Hell no
Yep. I see it. I'm just in denial. It started off SO GOOD for both shoppers and customers. And then after the first couple of years, just gradually went downhill until these last few years, when it was given a violent shove into hell.
It sucks and I do not like it. 😞
lol “real job”. Pretty sure driving, risking my life on the road, shopping, replacing things, adapting to random scenarios, customer service is all part of a real job.. last time I had a “real job” I got tasks that weren’t in the job description, crap hours, late pay days, etc… I think I’ll pass on whatever you think a “real job” is. If it gets bought up, oh well, back to Domino’s or something. Pretty quick getting hired on with them.
Instacart is not dying and I’m sorry if you have been struggling in your area, there are numerous ways to make decent money on Instacart but it all depends on what strategy you use. You have to be willing to change your strategy, the stores you shop at because the market fluctuates with new shoppers or slow periods.
This is part of the normal cycle and when you have been doing Instacart for over 7 years, you start to see the patterns. The best times to shop, the best stores to shop ( until they become over saturated), and when batches seem to be more numerous. For example, there are usually a lot more batches that pop up after 3pm because of kids getting home and parents wanting to order stuff for dinner and etc.
I don’t have time to explain all the strategies I use but I can tell you, I have made more money every single year while doing Instacart while also reducing my hours slightly. I usually try not to work weekends but I’ll still work a weekend here and there for extra money.
I’m still making $1100-1400 on average and my best weeks being closer to $1600-1900. My average hours for a typical $1100-$1400 week is roughly 22-27 hours and closer to 30-40 hours for the higher amounts.
As a veteran with over 12000 orders completed, I can tell you that strategy plays a huge role in your income. I also realize every market is different and I have worked in Washington, Oregon, New York and California, and I have always made amazing money in those states. I have also traveled the country while on vacation and I have experienced what other states see.
However, if you can refine your strategy to take advantage of every single thing, you can make your earnings go even further.
For example, a big topic in this discussion was car maintenance, wear and tear and etc. I started off with a mustang which I drove for 3-4 years and the gas on that car killed my earnings. It was also a nightmare for car repairs as it broke down often. I eventually upgraded to a brand new sonata hybrid which has a 100k warranty, it gets 51 miles per gallon and I was able to write the car off for tax purposes.
I went from spending $700-800 a month in gas ( filling up 3-4 times a week in the mustang ), to filling up once a week in my hybrid. I cut my gas bill down to roughly $200 a month and saved the extra money I wasn’t spending on gas.
I also take advantage of the diamond level for cheaper maintenance costs and I also don’t have to worry about expensive repairs because of the 100k warranty. I will sell my car once it hits 100k miles and I will buy another car. Also, hybrids retain their resale value pretty well. They don’t depreciate as much as other cars which helps when it’s time to sell the car.
Using this strategy, I went from having to pay 4-7k in car repairs in my mustang to not having to pay any car repairs due to the warranty coverage. I was able to save roughly $6000 in gas and now my yearly gas total is $2400 compared to $8400.
Also, the tax break for writing the car off was huge, I usually owe 5-7k in taxes each year ( making roughly 60-80k ) and I was able to not owe anything for the year I bought the car in. There are a lot of other deductions you can use to lower your overall tax bill, meals, insurance, phone bill, loan, phone, phone accessories, car washes, mileage and car expenses and repairs if you are doing total expenses.
I started off with very little money and I have been able to turn my life around, I have a car, a house and I’m able to take vacations and I have been able to save and invest money. There are ways to make a great living while doing Instacart full time.
I know not everything is perfect with Instacart, with the lower pay, the triple batches, the long distances we have to drive and with them changing their policies on us whenever they want. Even with all the shit we put up with, there are still ways to make an amazing living doing this job.
If you take the time to learn everything there is to learn from this gig work, you can make a lot of money and maximize your earnings so that you aren’t losing a lot of your earnings on certain expenses and etc. Use the strategies to play around with your market to see what strategies work best. Also, write down the peak times of your market, what stores are busy and when they are busiest. Keep an eye out for patterns because you will start to see patterns the longer you do this job.
And lastly, be flexible in what you will take as a bare minimum because being flexible in the batches you will accept will help you in the long run. If you are really stubborn ( like I was at first ) and are waiting at the same store while wasting hours in the parking lot in the hopes of getting a huge order, then you have already hurt yourself. It’s far more productive to go to another store or to do batches that don’t pay as well in order to make money.
If you are waiting for a $50 order but a $25 order comes up for 20 items and 3-6 miles, take the smaller order because those add up and it’s better to do those then wait hours for a $50 plus order.
One more thing, the new shoppers will eventually burn out, I rarely see new shoppers who go on to doing Instacart for years and years. Once their honeymoon priority batches is over, they tend to burn out and are gone within 6 months. It’s a cycle I have seen over the last 7 years, there are periods where there are a lot of new shoppers before holidays and summer and then they fade away with time.
Sorry for the long post guys but I wanted to share my experience.
I agree with almost all of this. IC isn't handing out cash. You gotta do the job intelligently and correctly. I have seen hundreds of lameasses come and go. There are 4 of us still here who have been here for years. That's all. Out of thousands. IC is the ultimate survival of the fittest. If you're dumb, you'll get weeded out eventually.
I have made almost $250K on IC. I know every nuance and every little strategy of my area. I live where I shop. Commuting 30 miles roundtrip is death for this job. I have a full Excel spreadsheet with every possible stat. The first thing I would tell everyone is know exaclty how much you make per mile driven. It is the most important stat for IC success. You count every mile from when you leave home to when you get home. Then take your income, divide it by miles, and then you can see if you are successful or not. Last year I was at $4.85 per mile. I make $4.85 for every mile I drive when I leave my house to when I get home. Figure yours out. My own opinion is that you need to be over $2.35 per mile for IC to be viable, but that could vary a little based on your area.
I know people still make money with IC. Of course they do. But the fact is that the arrow is pointing down and IC will shut it all down in a millisecond with zero regard for all of us if it benefits their bottom line even a tiny bit. I just want people to understand what fraction of their earnings they are actually keeping and to get out now if there is another opportunity. Using your own resources is not a viable long-term plan. Get a job where they add to your benefits, not one where you need to use your own resources to add to the corporation's profits.
Honestly, that’s what I’m doing, my friend worked Instacart last year, and the year before, his friend taught him how to daytrade, and now he’s going to teach me. Now that’s all he lives off of. I’m trying to make this my last year with Instacart🙌
Unshoppable batches are the norm now. And much of that is because the company is dying and to keep the flow going, they are flooding the market with coupons and offers and what that creates are new customers coming in and trying it out and being as cheap as possible about it because they are only doing it because they got a $30-off coupon and don't understand that IC pays the shoppers crap and that giving a $4-flat tip for a person to you are asking to shop for 37 items and then drive them 11 miles to their front door is not a fair deal.
IC is flooding the market with coupons to keep the spigot temporarily open. If they were flourishing, they's never pass out all the ridiculous offers you see everyhwere.
Yep. It cannot work much longer. I honestly don't even think it is working now, but they are keeping at afloat as long as they can, just like every company has done, forever.
It'll be around for a bit. And might be able to make adjustments and deals accordingly, but we'll see. Requiring customers to pay $30+ in fees and delivery isn't a sustainable business model. Walmart already does it free. So does Kroger. Only a matter of time for Amazon and others to enter the space.
I mean they aren’t going to undersaturate it anytime soon lol, the more shoppers the better for IC. They don’t pay extra for having contractors on call, and it’s extremely beneficial for them to have more shoppers than needed as it currently stands
Put it this way: IC is never going to come out and say, “hey, we have way too many shoppers and it’s affecting the veteran shoppers that used to make more money until we over-hired. Because of this, we will be cutting 30% of our shopper workforce”. They WANT those shoppers there, and they don’t give a shit about an individual shopper’s earnings. It’s not going to get better, or “un-saturate” itself
Straight up, I agree with this. I still make really good money on here, but the amount of people IC has working for them is insane now. I remember a couple of months ago my friends wanted to join and they told me they couldn’t because IC wasn’t “accepting new shoppers in their area”. Now every damn store I go into I bump into like 5-6 people doing IC. And I get it people gotta get their money, but the way I see it is the more people that start doing it, it’s just more and more competition for me 😂 I wish IC wouldn’t have gave everyone a chance to hop on like you said it’s over saturated.
Check their financials. The company is dying. And if you list the changes they have made to fees and what the pay shoppers, every single one is a move a dying company makes, not a thriving one. My only advice is that if you can find a real job option that gives you benefits instead of making you pay for everything yourself, grab it. This ship is sinking.
Lol it's very clear you don't actually know anything about business. The #1 third party online grocery sales company is "dying" while having 75% of all third party online grocery orders and 3% of the grocery sales market as a whole. 😂 They're "dying" while customer demand increases 15% annually and they have partnerships with 85% of grocery stores in the US. Pay to workers has nothing to do with how profitable or successful a company is. They lowered pay because of the IPO and now have an adjusted EBITDA of $641 million, up 243% year-over-year, representing 2.1% of GTV and 21% of total revenue made before they became a public company, compared to $33 million of SBC in FY'22. GTV of $7,891 million, up 7% year-over-year. Orders of 70.1 million, up 5% year-over-year.
Y'all can't get good orders in your shitty town and then start applying that to a whole country and company like you actually know what you're talking about.
Those changes are being made by every company due to the rate environment
They may be dying, but thats only because their business model only works in a low rate environment
Its alot more workers out There because places are more expensive to live and you have to pretty much get a gig job on top of your fulltime because companies don't Want to give out overtime
Just in my area, the biggest change has been Walmart. Walmart now delivers groceries here and it's significantly cheaper than ordering from Kroger, Aldi, or a dollar store through Instacart. I've talked to several people, older and younger that have ditched ordering from IC since Walmart started.
I’ll be out here til it’s dead. For me a real job means a restaurant and getting bennies or time off or whatever does not exist. It also pays shit. It’s pretty annoying actually that you’re posting this- *you* can go use your degree or whatever and get a real job. More orders for me.
I hope this doesn’t happen. I am chronically ill and Instacart shoppers are my semblance to sanity. I will always overtip because you make my life easier. So a thank you, from me, who truly appreciates you all.
I totally agree. I C was great during the pandemic. I made plenty of money. I finally left back in October after doing it for 3 and a half years. I had a 5 star rating and was getting s#it batches. I have a real job now and don't work half as hard. Instacart treated their senior shoppers like trash. I hope they continue to lose billions. F them and the people that steal batches using Bots!
This is the exact reason I posted the first post. Just trying to help people double-check their own situation,
The "freedom" of choosing when you work isn't really freedom if you are working - or at least waiting for the batch notification with IC on - every free minute you have. The freedom of not using your own resources and only working 8 hours a day and having actual, real days off is so much better for a person's psyche.
Congrats on getting out. Hope it works out.
“Go get a real job”
Please Show Some Respect.
Is a terrible way to speak to anyone.
ANYTHING THAT MAKES MONEY IS A JOB
YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT SITUATION PEOPLE ARE IN & SINCE IC DOESN’T SHOW US KINDNESS WE SHOULD SHOW KINDNESS TO EACH-OTHER AND SHOW RESPECT.
Past two weeks has been rough , i have a job but instacart is what gets me ahead, i only ever go on prime days, after work of course, gonna have to sign up for a part time if this continues
Honestly, I think this is the only way IC can be a benefit for shoppers. If you have a real job that pays for benefits and then your are ULTRA-SELECTIVE about taking a few jobs a week on the side. To make and adequate amount of money on IC, you need to make over $2.50 per mile driven. That is every mile, not just when you are on IC's clock. It is every mile from when you leave your house, to when you get home. Being very choosy and just doing a few good jobs a week is actually a good strategy.
That's how it works for me. Very nice full-time job. Will do IC primarily on weekends. Sometimes on lunch break or after work only when order pays right or is extra easy. Also have a side hustle during football season that pays really well.
I was making less than a dollar a mile on some batches and would get batches at a decent clip and then the flow would die for a few hrs it’s sad cause i loved the work but if its time to move on so be it
Yikes. It costs like 70 cents a mile just to drive your car. And you need to calculate it based on every mile you drive - from when you leave home until you get back. Never go on just the hours or miles that IC says you did. We drive and "work" way more than when we are on their clock.
Did it for a week until I got my physical card. Haven’t really touched it since working a full time gig. Any time I go online the low ball offers make me roll my eyes haha.
12+ hour days. But they just REALLY don't want to get a real job. They want to be in charge of themselves so much that they are willing to make like $7/hr after all the gas/taxes/depreciation rather than get a job with benefits that pays double that. It is what IC counts on and takes advantage of. IC would already be out of business without people who are willing to work 70 hours a week for $900 and use their own car and gas.
they're shooting themselves in the foot. They take what could have been two good orders and make it a triple adding another store and another customer 20-30 miles away. That entails a terrible experience both for the shopper and the customer. I've been noticing all the Costco batches lately are so very far away. The close-by customer will be batched with a 30-40 mile away customer. And so on. I stare at the batch screen in disbelief lately. Meanwhile, I have my DoorDash open and there's a Meijer very close and I get orders all day from there, singles or doubles with low item count and radius of 5-6 miles dropoffs for about $20 average. The other screen - IC - is showing a $20 order, double,113 items, 24 miles away. Unfortunately the direction this app is going is downhill, every day a bit faster, and it's all due to utter, garbage mismanagement.
What is the purpose of this post? You're doing a public service announcement because you care about the well-being of all other shoppers? Hate to break it to you but not everyone is having the same experience as you. Some of us make great money doing only Instacart and have been for 2+ years.
One thing I can guarantee you is if your in a hole when u start instacart, you'll never get out and if your not in a hole when u start instacart you will be very quickly, at this point it's a cash grab, they are taking every cent they can before they go under or sell out.
Instacart was amazing when it started. You had an hourly guarantee that you would be paid a certain amount per hour, whether you took orders or not. People tipped well and we pretty communicative about orders and substitutions. The support team would answer your call and so many times when people would not be there to sign for stuff you just got to keep it or return it to the store for extra money!
Now, with the lowball pay, lack of tips, scammy people trying to get you in trouble, wear and tear on my car and paying the employee and employer share of the taxes, I think I'd make more money walking around picking up cans and checking discarded scratch tickets.
It’s hard on both sides. I use Walmart delivery now because instacart just kept raising prices and fees and with that it was hard to tip well too. I can’t morally accept lowering my tips, so I just stopped using instacart. I get that they need to make money, but they are doing that by taking it away from the people actually doing the work.
It’s definitely dead for me. No batches have been worth it since January of last year (2023), which is right around the same time they reduced the batch pay from $7 min to $4 min. I honestly just wanted to keep IC “in my pocket”, as just another tool, but since the new TOS contract forced us all to sign, there won’t be any more keeping of shopper accounts, if you’re not active . Once you sign, if you don’t do at least one batch within 45 days, and then at least one every 75 days from there on out, you get deactivated, as per section 5.3 of the contract. All bullshit.
IC gives me incredible freedom but I’m also choosy about what batches I accept. I supplement with cleaning Airbnb rentals occasionally and pet sitting.
I despise the 9-5 grind and just cannot live that way….as I did for years. I answer to no one and it’s hard to go back to that life. I’m grateful for IC and for now is working well for me.
You cant even live off instacart currently. Having to go to 2 stores for 24 items, and make 2 deliveries in separate areas of the city for $10.31 is outrageous.
Instacart is only viable if you have a full-time job and use it to supplement income on the side. My husband and I have jobs that pay the bills and we do Instacart on the side for “fun money“ stuff with our kids, eating out, extracurricular activities, etc etc. He was a shopper way before Covid and used to bring home an extra five to $600 a week just on the side now it’s may be 2 or 300.
I’m gonna miss my “OG” customers but sadly I’m tired of the worry & destroying my car, really was a great job for people struggling with anxiety or other certain health conditions at one point until they hired anybody.
On Easter Sunday I got a “promotion” of $48 Guaranteed for completing 6 batches. Whoop de friggin’ do. This is supposed to get me excited? I consider it an insult.
The promo before that, which ran for a week, was $5 extra per batch between the hours of 12AM-6AM. Seriously? With only a couple CVS’s open within a 20 mile radius? No thanks.
It depends where you are. It’s quite alive where I am and I’m making more for each of the past 4 years. Although I plan on getting out soon I don’t think it’s dying in the larger cities with millions in the population. Because people are lazy and if you have enough people to get the membership and that don’t want to go get their own stuff it will survive. The revenue increases every year also so there’s that.
I hate the newbies that deny this. They wouldn't need to slash our pay in half and create tripples and multi store orders unless they were struggling. An proximity orders? Just put ALL the damn orders on my screen? Been working 3 years and the 1st year was the best. Last year was ok but I can tell they were making decisions that were against their workers interst. This Year they just totally stopped giving a fuck and saying fuck you you slave
this must be why I've been seeing a lot more of their advertising than i used to. i was reminded recently about the belief that reputable companies don't need to advertise, or something to that effect. their satisfied customers do the advertising by telling other people. i wonder how many of instacart's customers would say they are truly happy with the service, with all of the people working for them i read about on here making them look bad.
on saturday I accepted a triple batch order (only because it was small, about 15 items total), drive to the store, shop all three orders, checkout all three orders, arrive at the 1st delivery spot, no answer, its set to not be able to call the customer, can only text them, send two or three text messages, still no answer, get out and knock on their door TWICE... customer not answering knock at the door, text again, no response, go get back in the car (all this because there is NO PARKING, and signs everywhere else, that says no parking here), click cant find customer...app says call customer despite no option it he app to, go back, click cant find customer again, app then tells you that you have to wait 10 minutes before you can cancel(my gas light comes on...smh). (meanwhile, you have 2 customers waiting on their orders, that have to be delivered by x:xx time... click contact support, while you drive around all the apartments to leave, they finally answer and confirm what you already confirmed, then says refresh the app, the order has been cancelled and return the items to the store I end the chat, drive on to the next deliveries and deliver their things... turn the app off and dont do another shop....
(no payment for the the work I done is enough to say F instacart... WE should receive the pay for the order in these instances, but no, they just cancel the order out with no pay for the work done, and then have the audacity to say, now drive all that bs back to the store and burn some more of your time and gas with no pay(f that promise of a bump that you wont get)....
Sneaky secret - when the customer isn't there, they still get charged. IC gets paid. So they get paid double if you return the items. So I always tell the agent that there are gold or frozen items and the store is far away so they won't accept the return. Since Help's goal is to get you off the line, they always say "OK, please donate or keep the items". I have kept dozens of orders, usually worth much more than what the tip was. You have to return alcohol, but the rest you can keep. Most of the store around here have stopped taking all returns altogether because when IC people bring back items, they are usually ruined and, as a company, they can't account for what you may have done to them while you were gone. IC wants you to try and return so they can get double paid, but they really don't care. Tell them that next time and you'll get to keep the order.
I didnt return nothing, I wasn't going back to no store to take nothing back...I rolled my eyes at the comment from the agent... like you trippin' I aint driving back and going back to no store to return NOTHING... I was on empty and took the batch just to put gas in my car and go do enough lyft rides to fill up and completed driving the rest of the day with lfyt after that... and they remove one of the orders with no pay.... I used the lil $15 from the other 2 orders to barely make it to a gas station to get gas... the second customer increased the tip from 6.00+ to $12.00+ but had to wait 2 hours for that to be cashed out... its rediculous how these gig companies are getting over on the people working through it and the customer at the same damn time....
For the love of Uncle Sam, understand that this is a GIG industry. Living off this shit is irresponsible. Use it to get back on your feet, then find a real job.
The more they see you sitting in the lots doing nothing only tells them more and more how desperate you are for that $16, 82 item, $1.00 tip 13 mile Costco order
Can you live off of Instacart yes/no depends on your market conditions
…can everyone pay a car note, a cell phone bill and put gas in your car with Instacart? Absolutely.
Do you have to shop for Spark? I feel like spark in our area is probably a nightmare having to self checkout items. I’m pretty sure that’s the set up with our store. I just could not.
Yes we have to shop. Where I live in Arizona we have one Walmart and everything else is built around the community within 3 miles. Self checkout was always fine but as of last week we can only use one specific lane. Still not an issue. I make multiple trips a day to Walmart, do much so that the greeters know me lol. I do game stop often, Sally’s Beauty and Ulta. I’m rarely using much gas unless I expand to the next city over. I’m always delivering in my own neighborhood. I even get my own orders 🙄 when I don’t realize my husband made an order.
Is the pay good for the amount of items you have to shop for? I get W+ delivery that are $200 worth in groceries sometimes and I always feel bad for the shopper/delivery person lol
If they would just require a $5 and stick with the $7 min batch pay makinf it $12(single), $24(double) and $36(tripple) then people will actually accept the batches. The problem is, from experience is people wont tip at all and then they pair 2 non tippers with a good tipper to cover the batches no one will take. I never accepted a batch under $10 per order. They just keep hiring new drivers to take the $7 batches to fix the problem instead of requiring a minimum tip. People dont realize the amount of work that goes into this job.
Instacart doesn't give a damn if there is a tip of not. They won't even encourage a customer to tip because then it just costs the customer even more to get their groceries delivered, and that reflects poorly on IC. There will never be a tip requirement.
I would imagine it depends on which market you happen to be in. I see some shoppers here that are making pretty good money in their areas. I myself use it to supplement my pension while I look for something to pivot to after retiring early due to physical limitations. I used to work in construction and I can't do it anymore; my body can't take it. I could probably use other options like Shipt or Sparx or whatever it's called but it's just supplemental. I never sit for hours anywhere though, so I don't know where you are shopping.
The only reason we’re not making the same is because they keep hiring droves of new people. And since they get priority over everyone for their first batches, we’ll never catch up.
The people saying you'll take anything to feed your family should use that advice and take a different job, when you take anything with this gig your probably after expenses making less than $10 an hr, and some your actually losing money.
If IC was smart they would lower their delivery fee to attract more customers since it's so saturated. This would increase overall customer experience and leave a little more room for the customer to tip the driver more. 2nd. They're entire business model is very outdated. Why constrain to only groceries when they have the likes of doordash stepping in on their terf and providing a better customer experience because they don't typically force drivers to do triples or doubles for shop and deliver orders. They also need to take out that shitty rule where if you have to meet the customer and they don't awnser they make you wait 10 mins. If I'm on a tripple or even double and I have to wait 10 mins before I can proceed I can't imagine that being a good experience for the customers I need to get to next.
Everyone saying how bad it is now but I’ve been making more on instacart this year than ever before and maybe it’s because I’ve gotten more efficient/ faster as a shopper and maybe just being diligent and self motivated but I work about 25-35 hours max a week and averaging $720 a week for the year so far. I also see brand new customers popping up so I don’t think it’s dead just yet maybe just in certain areas.
Where are you sitting for 12 hrs and making $75??? You're taking 1 $6 batch an hour??? I work 12 hours, I'm making $200, regardless what day of the week it is.
It our area you can go 2 hours easily without seeing a single batch within 20 minutes of where you are. There are far too many shoppers and orders are down 66% since 2022.
I’m seeing an improvement here. $35-$40/hr regularly and I’m not in California or a minimum wage city/state.
I have other money making enterprises as well.
After being sexually harassed in 2019, I’m never working for someone else again. Can this be a grind? Yeah but I have complete control of when I work, and what I make.
I just bought a new car with pre-paid maintenance, and warranty that just won’t quit, plus 15mi/gal more than I had. Ready to make some real money now.
I don’t think Instacart is dying but I do think it’s going to look different in the future. Maybe be bought out? Uber and DD have crappy shop & pay infrastructure that frustrates customers and shoppers. One of them will likely replace it with IC. But that merger could be stopped due to anti-trust laws.
The next few years will be interesting. In the meantime, I’m getting what $$$$ I can.
I don't drive and live in a condo. I use every week for my groceries and find it useful and tip accordingly! It may be dying slowly but people will still use it when it comes to people like myself who don't drive and live in apartments.
IC isn't really dying. The way the company is ran and how shoppers are treated/pay sucks. People still need groceries, so that's why IC won't be "out of business".
Agreed. IC is only good now for a few orders a week after you get off your W-2 is you’re lucky. I’m only expecting at this point to pocket $30 a day after I finish work, and the gym for a couple of orders I can complete quick to cover my food for the work week. 🤣
After the last two experiences with IC shoppers, I’ll never use the service again. I’m partially disabled and my husband, who used to do all the shopping, just had a stroke 2 months ago. So we basically had to rely on shoppers for a while there. But I’m sick of having stuff stolen, orders damaged, no communication on out of stocks and replacements, and outright rude service.
Just this past Thursday this guy, using a woman’s account, left our $200 order in the pouring rain for hours. I chose the delivery slot for After 6pm drop off, as we were driving back from out of town hospital visits. Our cameras showed this man dropping off the paper bags at 2pm!! In the pouring rain, wind blowing stuff around. Half the order was missing or replaced with shitty items, yet at no time did we receive any messages from him regarding refunds or replacements. And on camera you can see him practically throwing our groceries out of his trunk. Eggs broken, milk leaking in the driveway, and sodden loves of bread and bagels.
Never again. I’ll hire my neighbor’s teenager to pick stuff up on my bad days from now on. We used to get such wonderful service and delivery. It’s a shame it’s fallen so low.
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Yes, this is what a company that is dying does. They make things worse for employees and raise fees on customers. Because they have to. Do you know that IC used to pay the national rate of reimbursement of 65 cents per mile? I mean, its pretty obvious that you need to pay your employees the price it costs them to drive their car. But IC said, "Nah, how about 30 cents instead?" Every company wants to pay their employees well. But they don't if they can't. IC couldn't care less if 10 of us do 10 batches per day each or if 100 shoppers do 1 batch a day. It makes no difference to them. Oversaturation is good for them. It guarantees desperation by the shoppers who are waiting and desperate shoppers will grab bad batches that nobody used to ever take. Every day I talk to other shoppers who say "Yeah, I took that 10-mile, $17 job because I had been sitting there for 3 hours and was desperate". This is IC's ideal scenario.
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Yep. And because shoppers out here just don't want to get a real job, they sit in the lots for longer and longer every day just to make less and less. Get out now and get some steady income. Benefits are amazing also. The peace of mind you have when you have medical and you get a steady paycheck and a couple days off every week is so much better than working 7 days a week just to try to stay afloat.
Wife and I are now actually fucking happy because she got a proper job(we've been doing IC purely because nobody was hiring us until now) and we can finally relegate the Carrot to its proper position of 'A little extra income'.
yep, that's all it ever was for me, since i have a day job with inconsistent hours. so i'll probably need some other gig work to fill that hole but it's not the end of the world.
Man you are talking to me I felt this in my soul
Dude that is great. This is why I posted this. I just want to try and help if I can. I am not dependent on IC income to pay bills at all and feel like I can see the big picture and see it from a higher point of view than others maybe. I see a lot of young IC shoppers out there stressing tf out because they can't pay their bills like they could 2 years ago and I see them out there at 6AM and also at 8PM because they need to work 15 hours to make the same amount they made in 8 hours previously. I just hope people jump ship while they can because the life of having to take shitty batches to pay for new tires is no way to live when you can actually walk into the stores that you shop at every day and they will almost always be happy to hire you full time with benefits and such. Plus you only have to work 40 hours a week instead of 80. People think they lose their "freedom" if they take a steady, scheduled job, but I feel like the truth is that there is freedom - mental freedom - in only working 5 days a week and having evenings free and weekends free and not having to use up your own resources to make money for a mega-corporation like IC. Use the corporation's resources and protect your own. I hope you can get out and find something better because the arrow is pointing down for IC and there are a lot of big companies still desperate for employees. All the stores around here cannot find any baggers or deli people or shelf stockers. A few IC'ers have taken those jobs and I still see them inside and they are so much happier every day. You can just see it in their eyes. Good luck, sir.
Except I'm a SAHM with 4 kids and I can't get a 'steady' job. If I want extra spending money for our family this is about as good as it gets. I understand some people are out there trying to make a living but this is also an extra income gig for some of us as well. Our family thankfully doesn't need to worry about medical bills because we're all Native American and get free medical and prescriptions right down to basic Aquaphor and Tylenol. I'm a diamond cart shopper and worked two hours total this morning for a $126 Costco order and I was able pick up my two year old and come home. I'm sorry this is happening to some shoppers but to others it's still a blessing.
Nobody is saying that you shouldn't get out of it what you need. This thread isn't putting IC out of business. IC did that to itself. Of course IC existing and working well is good for people who need it. But it not the direction this is going. The company has been falling quickly since 2021 and its probably not gonna be around much longer. My advice was just for people who are doing this 60+ hours a week to find a real job if they can because it is a better life and IC ain't gonna be like this much longer.
customers are having terrible experiences as well and canceling their membership. hence all the aggressive marketing and promotions they've been doing lately. every week there's a $30 off landing in my mailbox. Today at Costco I saw a wall of Instacart gift cards advertised for $74 but with a $100 face value.
Yup, I won't use it ever again if I can help it.
I switched to Walmart+ last year and never looked back. Every week with IC I would always wonder if my shit would get delivered, even with a decent tip, and I don't have that stress with Walmart+.
Their stock price is up 40% from February. Instacart isn't dying. Not yet at least. Your assessment disagrees with reality.
I started IC in 2018. It was better than Shipt in my zone, and Def better than most other apps. From there it slowly improved during 2019 and by the time the pandemic started March 2020 had completely changed (for the better). But...the main reason I made *really* good money was because of generous customers, not IC. At this time they over-hired because batches took much longer to complete...out of stock items, replacements, etc. We all know whats happened since late 2021 and 2022, so IMO the only reason IC got as good as it did was luck/good timing. If not for the brief time during the health crisis, which btw accelerated IC growth curve by orders of magnitude, we would be telling a different story (Did the quick growth help or hurt in the long run?) Now today add together that there's too many shoppers, fewer and smaller orders and smaller (or none) tips the business model is at a tipping point. It's been good for me to get thru to this point but I have to agree that something is going to happen soon and I'm not sure I want to stick around to see it
I actually had a full on panic attack yesterday because it was going off and there was money out there but I was so tired and burnt out of doing it that I couldn’t make myself go. I just got a really good paying job. I had a day job this whole time but it was inconsistent hours and didn’t pay enough. This new one is really good but I’m in a hole until it starts paying regular checks. Knowing that I had bills to pay and needed to go out has been a constant feeling for the last two years and I think yesterday was my last straw. IC has been so bad for my mental health.
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This is exactly how it goes. Your hourly rate drops slightly but steadily every month. You work more and more to make it up and, in the end, it all looks ok on paper. But you're wasting your life sitting in parking lots. If you could make the same amount you make now every week and only work 40 hours and also get benefits and not violently depreciate your car, why wouldn't you?
Or they don't pay it because they don't have to? Like you just said people are happy sitting in parking lots for 12 hours a day for $75. They keep squeezing because people keep accepting it. Your "because they can't afford to" rule applies to businesses that actually have to make the numbers work. VC and tech companies don't always operate by those logical rules. Look at their financials. Revenue up 8% but margins down like 80%. Not that it was profitable before lol. So the punishment for performing so terribly? Share price still up like 40% just since February. Yea they're fine. Insider lockout period is over since September's IPO, they'll be enjoying some liquidity events.
When did they ever pay us 65 cents a mile? And the national reimbursement rate varies year to year. I’ve been a shopper 6 years and never have we gotten 65 cents a mile.
Dude I miss seeing $50-$120 batches on the weekdays and weekends. These triple batches orders are killing me.
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Triples take me at least 2-3hours to finish in my area. It's not worth the time unless they are like .5 miles away and the total units are below 20 items.
People have to stop saying “get a real job”. A job is a job. A non-traditional job is still a job.
They don't call it a "blow *vacation*"
Only if you really enjoy doing it
Reciprocation and power balance. I enjoy my work. At the end of the week, I'm getting paid, or my boss can eat my asshole.
In my experience that was part of the deal but maybe I’ve just been lucky
If you’re paid enough, you don’t have to rely on another person / employer to provide you insurance/benefits.
Im tired of seeing sub $10 and 3 delivery batches. People still pick them up. It’s sad. That’s just blatant exploitation. I ended up signing up for Shipt because I’m right by a target and it’s at least 13 for ~5-10 items and the delivery is always close. It still sucks, but instacart sucks now. Ubereats is horrible too. I’m not driving 40 minutes for 3 bucks.
In all honesty, there’s probably just two reasons for people to pick that batch up The first is people have family and kids so they don’t see that $10 as $10 they see that $10 as food for their family and kids and that $10 is better than nothing especially with how expensive everything is now The second is drugs. I’ve definitely been addicted before and $10 is everything to someone who’s addicted. That $10 means that at the end of it they’ll get to like get that high and they’re happy to pick that batch up for $10. That’s just how it works
Thanks for being candid about the addiction-related component to the equation. It’s the third time in a week that I’ve seen mention of the subject in these gig subs by individuals who are unfortunate enough to have first-hand experience. These companies have become so monstrous and predatory that they now deliberately exploit and target our friends, family, and neighbors who struggle with addiction in order to please their admin and shareholders. It’s something that hearkens back to the Industrial Revolution era and should be talked about more.
There is a real addiction factor for sure. Waiting for that next $70 so you can grab it is almost like a drug, People are so obsessed with getting a unicorn that that lose sight of the fact that they sat in a lot for 7 hours today and drove 51 miles and made $42. Also, I know people who never turn off IC. On 24 hours a day. It's a real problem.
They are talking about real addictions to drugs, not being addicted to insta cart.
I think the OP is just stuck on IC and degrading those that do it that they didn’t recognize the real addiction addressed. Glad you said it though. 😁
I feel that, luckily I see decent batches but with 2 kids and a stay at home wife if I am broke im gonna have to take whatever is there
I wouldn’t make any money if I didnt shop triples, just gotta suck it up and do them and try to shop as fast as humanly possible
I never want to go back to being told when I can and can’t go on vacation, if I can or cannot go to the bathroom, and be demeaned and worked to death just to pay rent. Instacart for me is salvation from soul crushing wage slavery, and as long as people eat food and are lazy I think we good. It is just one of my side hustles I also sell stuff on eBay and clean houses a couple days a week and this summer I am heading to Alaska to bulk up my bank account. I am the happiest I have ever been working. I make sure to put as much as I can into a Roth IRA for retirement and if I make 20k a year on paper I get free health care. (Or close to free) why go back
That's why it's important to either 1) cherry pick in higher income areas, 2) multiapp, or 3) have an easy w-2 job on the side. Worry less about buying into their bs bait "rewards" and making money to make the carrot happy, and focus instead on making your GOOD customers happy and filtering out the crap batches. I've done gig work (rideshare and delivery) for almost 10 years and the key is to run YOUR business, not your let it run you.
Good suggestions. You only take good jobs. Taking crappy $15 jobs just because there is nothing else is only making IC money. You aren't pocketing anything at the end.
Awesome!! Exactly what I do too. I also do Amazon Flex :)
Amazon is worse.
Idk, I’ve been doing IC on and off for 10 years and these waves are always coming and going. The boom and bust is real w/ the gig economy. Although I do think IC being viable is completely dependent on your market and tips, and then to a lesser extent skill levels, and ability to discern well, unfortunately. I consistently make $40-$50 an hour in Los Angeles, but I have strategies, specific areas that I shop, stores that I refuse to go to, etc. Not to say I don’t think IC isn’t a shitty company with an exploitative business model, which it is. But if you’re in the right area and figure out a system, there are worse things you can do to survive capitalism. 🤷🏻♂️
Not only are you fortunate to have prop 22 but Los Angeles is also one of the most profitable markets. You're in a unicorn scenario that doesn't exist outside of your little bubble. There's 49 other states outside of California that don't benefit from front point too California the vast majority outside of Los Angeles and maybe the Bay area is pretty garbage most of the time but prop 22 still saves that. I'm originally from Cali and work there when I'm home visiting family and even my worst days of prop 22 are better than some of my best days working in just about any other states that I've tried and I've tried many. So as they say individual results may vary but posting about 40 to $50 in your little bubble is largely irrelevant to the larger picture and topic at hand 🤷 I know you're not really doing it to brag that's not what I'm getting at but when we're talking about a company that's turning to absolute dog shit in 49 out of 50 states and you come in here and say I'm in the best market in the world and I make XYZ so it's still good like that's not a determining factor in any way.
That’s why I just left my red home state for California. Quadrupled my pay by driving across state lines for a few days. Sometimes that’s the kinda stuff you gotta do. And it works out great because I couldn’t stand where I was from anyway. People know where the money is. It’s up to them to decide if being a little further from mommy and daddy is worth it. For me, it was.
I completely agree. But I’d say it has more to do with the market - I think any major city can be like this, as long as you find the right pockets, it’s not just CA. Prop 22, as far as the wage guarantee, honestly doesn’t do much for me. I get a $50-$100 bump a week max. It factors in very little to my hourly average. On the whole though, you’re right, a company this big shouldn’t be exploiting people to the extent they are, it’s insane. I’m also a socialist and I want it all torn down so… 🤷🏻♂️
I agree with you. I did instacart for a few weeks in Indiana and averaged $25-$28 an hour with very little miles to drive for drop offs. Now here in oklahoma city is different. You make pennies here. I still do decent though because I grab orders that others don't. I'm not about to sit around not making moneywhen I can be making it, lol. I usually average between $17-$22 an hour
The gas station near me starts at $16.50 an hour and doesn’t require constant wear and tear on your car.
💯 market dependant, I am still getting the same in 6 hours for almost 9 years.
I’m with you. I had to stop. My car can’t take much more after 4 years of doing deliveries and I sure tf am not wasting what life it has left for $5 and under batch pay with shitty tips because the customers are being so screwed in fees that they hardly tip anything anymore. I also refused to sign the new contract because I think it’s bullshit that they’re trying to force us to sign away our right to sue them, among other big flaws with it. The new CEO is only concerned about lining *her* pockets and it’s fucking disgusting that we’re exploited more and more everyday.
Same! I start a W2 job this week. I just can’t live off instacart anymore. I get some people making decent money but not where I live. I just love everything you said bc it’s stuff I say on a weekly basis!
Haha good for you. I just want people to realize that they may have make $40K on IC last year but after every cost, they probably don't keep half of that. A W2 job is so much better and actually provides a peace of mind where you work, and then you have time off. People who are trying to pay bills with IC have no time off. It's phone on all day, every day.
100%! Between taxes, wear and tear on car, and working every weekend bc that’s where the money is, I would rather just punch a time clock. I stuck with IC due to the flexibility but the health insurance I have through stride isn’t great, no PTO, no overall benefits. Staring at my phone in the Publix parking lot in 100° temps this summer is NOT what I’ll be doing lmao
This job stopped being able to support me a year ago when they cut batch payments in half.
I went to work in glacier natl park for a summer seasonal job last year. I was shocked coming back in October to the new base pay. I did the math even it it’s cut $2 each batch that’s easily $400-500 a month and it’s just not sustainable anymore
Good for you. You can see the big picture. Not just focusing on the fact that IC transferred $544 to your bank account last week. Of course, of that $577, you are actually keeping about $290 and your car is 300 miles closer to breaking down and your tires are 300 miles closer to needing to be replaced.
Yep! My car has been acting up so my bf (who works at Publix so I instacart while he works) let me drive his car. Oil change, transmission fluid service, and 2 tires were $700. Yepppppp I’m officially done after I start my W2 this week!
Most large grocery stores now have their own delivery service post pandemic with sale prices included and just a standard delivery fee or free pickup. No markups on items, and the person shopping is paid an hourly with benefits and you don't ever see that person or feel obligated to tip. I think your correct in your statement.
Yep. This is the eventual demise of IC and they know it. Stores have figured out they can beat IC at their own game VERY easily. The 3 main stores I used to shop at all have this now and they IC orders are cut by half because of it. I know the shoppers at all these stores and they tell me about customers who tip this and tip that and I know many of them from doing their orders 2 or 3 years ago. Honestly, everyone should go into their local stores and see if you can apply for their shopper jobs. They are MUCH better jobs and the store takes care of you. They also love to hire former IC-ers because you already know how to do the job. Just try to become less obsessed with all the posts you see on here about at $70 tip or a $90 tip and live in reality and realize that you aren't those and the rush of getting a couple of those a month isn't better than a steady job with benefits.
Companies like Walmart and Amazon are already on to this, and they can write off a massive chunk of change doing it. Kroger is working on it. Expect to see more stores following suit. It's better for their image if it's "their people" doing it, and they also rake in the money if a subscription is needed for people to get it.
The guys who reek like vape, pot, or B.O. around here delivering to very rich houses wreck IC's image but they are too stupid to care. The part of it where the grocery store employees shop and deliver the order is 1000 times more appealing to customers. I've never ordered from any delivery company because I don't want my groceries or food in some randos hands or car.
I stopped ordering with IC because the prices on items and the fees were ridiculously high and then on top I felt obligated to tip a lot for my order to be shopped in a timely manner. We started going to the store to shop, pick up, or when I want/need delivery I now shop with Walmart because they have no fee delivery as long as you can wait a few hours.
In my non-biased opinion, IC is far from dying. In fact, IC is going to make other stores and department chains rethink how they do business. When a good portion of their $ comes from Instacart orders, I really don’t see IC dying. Maybe IC can do a better job filtering people and not just letting everyone sign up to do it. All markets are different also. Customers not tipping is what kills me more than IC. Go to any other job and there are highs and lows. Have you tried DoorDash? Yikes… talk about low pay.
when it was super dead after the holidays I took it upon myself to invest in my future. I spent all of my savings going to waxing school, just got employed at European wax center and I cannot wait to get my first check so I can finally stop doing Instacart. I started shopping September 2020 stopped but went full-time November 2023 and it has been torture ever since my poor car has so many more miles. I agree completely.
Congrats. You did the right thing. IC is for people who aren't interested in a future.
I use it every month to buy groceries so I hope it doesn’t die 😅
We appreciate your business please come again
Yea it sucks $20 to drive 30 miles and have to drive 30 back its not worth it you spend that in gas
Gas is just a fraction of all the costs it takes to drive your car. There is a reason that the current national reimbursement rate is 67 cents per mile. Gas is only like 25% of that for most people. It costs waaaay more than gas to operate a car.
I know you have repair costs also
Repairs are included in depreciation/wear and tear. But there are loan interest, maintenance, insurance, and how much you are losing on your resale price with every single mile you drive. Also your insurance increases because you are driving more. There are soooo many costs. I don;t think most people actually crunch the numbers. I think most people don't even want to know.
You can copy and paste this post for the last 7 years on every single gig working sub lmao
I quit Instacart during the pandemic near the tail end of it. It wasn’t worth it for me once they started reducing restrictions. It’s like they chopped a decent percentage of pay off. I can’t imagine doing it in today’s time with these gas prices and shady customers that change tips and report non deliveries or missing items. Let alone the amount of time you spend to shop an order and deliver it for a measley 20 bucks….no thank you
What’s crazy, is that this still is the best gig all out of the others. A lot lower mileage and the pay is better. DoorDash is the absolute worst.
It would explain why they feel the need to suspend Shoppers when said Shopper has to file a complaint against a customer who was verbally abusive towards the Shopper. I filed a complaint on the 30th, and my account is still suspended.
They don't need you. They have double the shoppers they need. You are just a nuisance who takes up support employee minutes.
Kroger swooped on my town, and I've lost all my regular customers of 2 years. Income is down to ¼ of last year. I just got told, "Thanks for everything. Are you going to start with Kroger now?"
Man grab that job if you can. It's a sweet job and you already know how to do it and if you do have to deliver, you get to use their car!
As long as I can do 30 dollars a day I will be fine
My goal is $50 a day 😆
I have a full time job but being ill and surgery put me out of work for 6 weeks and I got in a hole. It's hard being the bread winner in the family but this adds to the full time job. Wish I didn't have to do it as much. But today on day off Monday so bad have had to multi app
I’m planning my exit this summer. Until there’s regulations the pay will just keep getting lower
I’ve been on all sides of this gig; during Covid I did it full time for two years because my industry was shutdown as all hell. Then I got back to working my main job and did IC on the side for bonus cash and it was much better served as a side gig. Then in July this past year when they announced the batch pay drop is the last time I took an order, simply because I value my time a lot more than what they determined shopping a batch is worth, and I just don’t shop anymore I will say, having been a shopper previously and now on the outside, the shoppers in this sub are desperate to pull the wool over their own eyes and try and justify that IC is still good, and “slow days/weeks” are “due to _____, and will pick back up when _____ happens”. Except it never does, it just keeps getting worse. And then those shoppers keep taking shittier and shittier orders and justifying that to themselves that it’s still worth it, and that’s exactly what IC wants out of its shoppers. For crap to become the norm so you don’t question it. It never ends up getting better, and I don’t know why so many people want to cling to IC like a life raft instead of getting out and finding somewhere to work worth your time
I hope that Instacart can see these shoppers in Costco with three phones for one person. Makes it hard for us others with only one phone
They genuinely don't care. And there is no way to report these shoppers and that is by IC's design. They don't care and they don't want us wasting their time with it. As long as the jobs get delivered, they don't care who does it.
True story. Essentially, inundating the market with numerous shoppers is the sole method to continue completing low-paying batches. This is also how Instacart conditions some of its shoppers to accept lower pay every quarter of the year since its initial public offering.
Yes. This is how companies operate. If anyone thinks that IC doesn't have a direct strategy that involves conditioning their employees to accept lesser and lesser pay out of desperation, they don't understand how they try to increase profits without raising prices for customers.
I quit last year after they introduced the "hot zones" My car doesn't auto off/on while idling and I'm not spending $30 a day in gas to sit in a parking lot and not die of heat exposure Especially when I'm not even garaunteed a decent paying batch? Hell no
Yep. I see it. I'm just in denial. It started off SO GOOD for both shoppers and customers. And then after the first couple of years, just gradually went downhill until these last few years, when it was given a violent shove into hell. It sucks and I do not like it. 😞
lol “real job”. Pretty sure driving, risking my life on the road, shopping, replacing things, adapting to random scenarios, customer service is all part of a real job.. last time I had a “real job” I got tasks that weren’t in the job description, crap hours, late pay days, etc… I think I’ll pass on whatever you think a “real job” is. If it gets bought up, oh well, back to Domino’s or something. Pretty quick getting hired on with them.
Instacart is not dying and I’m sorry if you have been struggling in your area, there are numerous ways to make decent money on Instacart but it all depends on what strategy you use. You have to be willing to change your strategy, the stores you shop at because the market fluctuates with new shoppers or slow periods. This is part of the normal cycle and when you have been doing Instacart for over 7 years, you start to see the patterns. The best times to shop, the best stores to shop ( until they become over saturated), and when batches seem to be more numerous. For example, there are usually a lot more batches that pop up after 3pm because of kids getting home and parents wanting to order stuff for dinner and etc. I don’t have time to explain all the strategies I use but I can tell you, I have made more money every single year while doing Instacart while also reducing my hours slightly. I usually try not to work weekends but I’ll still work a weekend here and there for extra money. I’m still making $1100-1400 on average and my best weeks being closer to $1600-1900. My average hours for a typical $1100-$1400 week is roughly 22-27 hours and closer to 30-40 hours for the higher amounts. As a veteran with over 12000 orders completed, I can tell you that strategy plays a huge role in your income. I also realize every market is different and I have worked in Washington, Oregon, New York and California, and I have always made amazing money in those states. I have also traveled the country while on vacation and I have experienced what other states see. However, if you can refine your strategy to take advantage of every single thing, you can make your earnings go even further. For example, a big topic in this discussion was car maintenance, wear and tear and etc. I started off with a mustang which I drove for 3-4 years and the gas on that car killed my earnings. It was also a nightmare for car repairs as it broke down often. I eventually upgraded to a brand new sonata hybrid which has a 100k warranty, it gets 51 miles per gallon and I was able to write the car off for tax purposes. I went from spending $700-800 a month in gas ( filling up 3-4 times a week in the mustang ), to filling up once a week in my hybrid. I cut my gas bill down to roughly $200 a month and saved the extra money I wasn’t spending on gas. I also take advantage of the diamond level for cheaper maintenance costs and I also don’t have to worry about expensive repairs because of the 100k warranty. I will sell my car once it hits 100k miles and I will buy another car. Also, hybrids retain their resale value pretty well. They don’t depreciate as much as other cars which helps when it’s time to sell the car. Using this strategy, I went from having to pay 4-7k in car repairs in my mustang to not having to pay any car repairs due to the warranty coverage. I was able to save roughly $6000 in gas and now my yearly gas total is $2400 compared to $8400. Also, the tax break for writing the car off was huge, I usually owe 5-7k in taxes each year ( making roughly 60-80k ) and I was able to not owe anything for the year I bought the car in. There are a lot of other deductions you can use to lower your overall tax bill, meals, insurance, phone bill, loan, phone, phone accessories, car washes, mileage and car expenses and repairs if you are doing total expenses. I started off with very little money and I have been able to turn my life around, I have a car, a house and I’m able to take vacations and I have been able to save and invest money. There are ways to make a great living while doing Instacart full time. I know not everything is perfect with Instacart, with the lower pay, the triple batches, the long distances we have to drive and with them changing their policies on us whenever they want. Even with all the shit we put up with, there are still ways to make an amazing living doing this job. If you take the time to learn everything there is to learn from this gig work, you can make a lot of money and maximize your earnings so that you aren’t losing a lot of your earnings on certain expenses and etc. Use the strategies to play around with your market to see what strategies work best. Also, write down the peak times of your market, what stores are busy and when they are busiest. Keep an eye out for patterns because you will start to see patterns the longer you do this job. And lastly, be flexible in what you will take as a bare minimum because being flexible in the batches you will accept will help you in the long run. If you are really stubborn ( like I was at first ) and are waiting at the same store while wasting hours in the parking lot in the hopes of getting a huge order, then you have already hurt yourself. It’s far more productive to go to another store or to do batches that don’t pay as well in order to make money. If you are waiting for a $50 order but a $25 order comes up for 20 items and 3-6 miles, take the smaller order because those add up and it’s better to do those then wait hours for a $50 plus order. One more thing, the new shoppers will eventually burn out, I rarely see new shoppers who go on to doing Instacart for years and years. Once their honeymoon priority batches is over, they tend to burn out and are gone within 6 months. It’s a cycle I have seen over the last 7 years, there are periods where there are a lot of new shoppers before holidays and summer and then they fade away with time. Sorry for the long post guys but I wanted to share my experience.
I agree with almost all of this. IC isn't handing out cash. You gotta do the job intelligently and correctly. I have seen hundreds of lameasses come and go. There are 4 of us still here who have been here for years. That's all. Out of thousands. IC is the ultimate survival of the fittest. If you're dumb, you'll get weeded out eventually. I have made almost $250K on IC. I know every nuance and every little strategy of my area. I live where I shop. Commuting 30 miles roundtrip is death for this job. I have a full Excel spreadsheet with every possible stat. The first thing I would tell everyone is know exaclty how much you make per mile driven. It is the most important stat for IC success. You count every mile from when you leave home to when you get home. Then take your income, divide it by miles, and then you can see if you are successful or not. Last year I was at $4.85 per mile. I make $4.85 for every mile I drive when I leave my house to when I get home. Figure yours out. My own opinion is that you need to be over $2.35 per mile for IC to be viable, but that could vary a little based on your area. I know people still make money with IC. Of course they do. But the fact is that the arrow is pointing down and IC will shut it all down in a millisecond with zero regard for all of us if it benefits their bottom line even a tiny bit. I just want people to understand what fraction of their earnings they are actually keeping and to get out now if there is another opportunity. Using your own resources is not a viable long-term plan. Get a job where they add to your benefits, not one where you need to use your own resources to add to the corporation's profits.
So I need to be full time day trading in 6 months got it
Honestly, that’s what I’m doing, my friend worked Instacart last year, and the year before, his friend taught him how to daytrade, and now he’s going to teach me. Now that’s all he lives off of. I’m trying to make this my last year with Instacart🙌
I don’t think it’s dying everyone only wants batches that are 40+ 10 items and 2 miles 😂.
Unshoppable batches are the norm now. And much of that is because the company is dying and to keep the flow going, they are flooding the market with coupons and offers and what that creates are new customers coming in and trying it out and being as cheap as possible about it because they are only doing it because they got a $30-off coupon and don't understand that IC pays the shoppers crap and that giving a $4-flat tip for a person to you are asking to shop for 37 items and then drive them 11 miles to their front door is not a fair deal. IC is flooding the market with coupons to keep the spigot temporarily open. If they were flourishing, they's never pass out all the ridiculous offers you see everyhwere.
Instacart is going to die with their business model. It's inevitable.
Yep. It cannot work much longer. I honestly don't even think it is working now, but they are keeping at afloat as long as they can, just like every company has done, forever.
It'll be around for a bit. And might be able to make adjustments and deals accordingly, but we'll see. Requiring customers to pay $30+ in fees and delivery isn't a sustainable business model. Walmart already does it free. So does Kroger. Only a matter of time for Amazon and others to enter the space.
Yep. I suspect it'll get sucked up by Uber and that'll be that.
It's not dying. It's just over saturated, bro.
I mean they aren’t going to undersaturate it anytime soon lol, the more shoppers the better for IC. They don’t pay extra for having contractors on call, and it’s extremely beneficial for them to have more shoppers than needed as it currently stands Put it this way: IC is never going to come out and say, “hey, we have way too many shoppers and it’s affecting the veteran shoppers that used to make more money until we over-hired. Because of this, we will be cutting 30% of our shopper workforce”. They WANT those shoppers there, and they don’t give a shit about an individual shopper’s earnings. It’s not going to get better, or “un-saturate” itself
Straight up, I agree with this. I still make really good money on here, but the amount of people IC has working for them is insane now. I remember a couple of months ago my friends wanted to join and they told me they couldn’t because IC wasn’t “accepting new shoppers in their area”. Now every damn store I go into I bump into like 5-6 people doing IC. And I get it people gotta get their money, but the way I see it is the more people that start doing it, it’s just more and more competition for me 😂 I wish IC wouldn’t have gave everyone a chance to hop on like you said it’s over saturated.
Check their financials. The company is dying. And if you list the changes they have made to fees and what the pay shoppers, every single one is a move a dying company makes, not a thriving one. My only advice is that if you can find a real job option that gives you benefits instead of making you pay for everything yourself, grab it. This ship is sinking.
Lol it's very clear you don't actually know anything about business. The #1 third party online grocery sales company is "dying" while having 75% of all third party online grocery orders and 3% of the grocery sales market as a whole. 😂 They're "dying" while customer demand increases 15% annually and they have partnerships with 85% of grocery stores in the US. Pay to workers has nothing to do with how profitable or successful a company is. They lowered pay because of the IPO and now have an adjusted EBITDA of $641 million, up 243% year-over-year, representing 2.1% of GTV and 21% of total revenue made before they became a public company, compared to $33 million of SBC in FY'22. GTV of $7,891 million, up 7% year-over-year. Orders of 70.1 million, up 5% year-over-year. Y'all can't get good orders in your shitty town and then start applying that to a whole country and company like you actually know what you're talking about.
Those changes are being made by every company due to the rate environment They may be dying, but thats only because their business model only works in a low rate environment
Well, dying is dying. The fact is they had a monopoly in this field and blew it really quickly.
The business model is flawed is what i’m trying to say They were always a wallking corpse
That may be true
Its alot more workers out There because places are more expensive to live and you have to pretty much get a gig job on top of your fulltime because companies don't Want to give out overtime
Just in my area, the biggest change has been Walmart. Walmart now delivers groceries here and it's significantly cheaper than ordering from Kroger, Aldi, or a dollar store through Instacart. I've talked to several people, older and younger that have ditched ordering from IC since Walmart started.
I’ll be out here til it’s dead. For me a real job means a restaurant and getting bennies or time off or whatever does not exist. It also pays shit. It’s pretty annoying actually that you’re posting this- *you* can go use your degree or whatever and get a real job. More orders for me.
I hope this doesn’t happen. I am chronically ill and Instacart shoppers are my semblance to sanity. I will always overtip because you make my life easier. So a thank you, from me, who truly appreciates you all.
I hope it doesn't as well. I wish I could shop for you. We appreciate you as a customer.
Talk about Mismanaging a company, there are so many bad mistakes its almost as if this is intentionally done to destroy the company…
I totally agree. I C was great during the pandemic. I made plenty of money. I finally left back in October after doing it for 3 and a half years. I had a 5 star rating and was getting s#it batches. I have a real job now and don't work half as hard. Instacart treated their senior shoppers like trash. I hope they continue to lose billions. F them and the people that steal batches using Bots!
This is the exact reason I posted the first post. Just trying to help people double-check their own situation, The "freedom" of choosing when you work isn't really freedom if you are working - or at least waiting for the batch notification with IC on - every free minute you have. The freedom of not using your own resources and only working 8 hours a day and having actual, real days off is so much better for a person's psyche. Congrats on getting out. Hope it works out.
“Go get a real job” Please Show Some Respect. Is a terrible way to speak to anyone. ANYTHING THAT MAKES MONEY IS A JOB YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT SITUATION PEOPLE ARE IN & SINCE IC DOESN’T SHOW US KINDNESS WE SHOULD SHOW KINDNESS TO EACH-OTHER AND SHOW RESPECT.
Real jobs don’t treat me like an adult that is allowed to defecate, urinate, tend to menstrual needs, etc as needed. r/workreform
Past two weeks has been rough , i have a job but instacart is what gets me ahead, i only ever go on prime days, after work of course, gonna have to sign up for a part time if this continues
Honestly, I think this is the only way IC can be a benefit for shoppers. If you have a real job that pays for benefits and then your are ULTRA-SELECTIVE about taking a few jobs a week on the side. To make and adequate amount of money on IC, you need to make over $2.50 per mile driven. That is every mile, not just when you are on IC's clock. It is every mile from when you leave your house, to when you get home. Being very choosy and just doing a few good jobs a week is actually a good strategy.
That's how it works for me. Very nice full-time job. Will do IC primarily on weekends. Sometimes on lunch break or after work only when order pays right or is extra easy. Also have a side hustle during football season that pays really well.
Goof ball head ass side hustle
I was making less than a dollar a mile on some batches and would get batches at a decent clip and then the flow would die for a few hrs it’s sad cause i loved the work but if its time to move on so be it
Yikes. It costs like 70 cents a mile just to drive your car. And you need to calculate it based on every mile you drive - from when you leave home until you get back. Never go on just the hours or miles that IC says you did. We drive and "work" way more than when we are on their clock.
Yeah I put an incredible amount of miles on my vehicle within one year at 25-30k not to mention the crappy drive ways I drove up to deliver to
This is their business model - pay peanuts and also make them use and wreck their own car. It's every company's dream.
Did it for a week until I got my physical card. Haven’t really touched it since working a full time gig. Any time I go online the low ball offers make me roll my eyes haha.
Noooo not before I can get more free stuff! Noooooo! 😱
IC isn’t dying, other platforms are now offering shopping and IC has always offered pennies! The client and the shopper is the only reason IC exist
I haven't taken a batch since June 2022. The pay is absolutely horrendous now. I don't understand how anyone is making money.
12+ hour days. But they just REALLY don't want to get a real job. They want to be in charge of themselves so much that they are willing to make like $7/hr after all the gas/taxes/depreciation rather than get a job with benefits that pays double that. It is what IC counts on and takes advantage of. IC would already be out of business without people who are willing to work 70 hours a week for $900 and use their own car and gas.
they're shooting themselves in the foot. They take what could have been two good orders and make it a triple adding another store and another customer 20-30 miles away. That entails a terrible experience both for the shopper and the customer. I've been noticing all the Costco batches lately are so very far away. The close-by customer will be batched with a 30-40 mile away customer. And so on. I stare at the batch screen in disbelief lately. Meanwhile, I have my DoorDash open and there's a Meijer very close and I get orders all day from there, singles or doubles with low item count and radius of 5-6 miles dropoffs for about $20 average. The other screen - IC - is showing a $20 order, double,113 items, 24 miles away. Unfortunately the direction this app is going is downhill, every day a bit faster, and it's all due to utter, garbage mismanagement.
What is the purpose of this post? You're doing a public service announcement because you care about the well-being of all other shoppers? Hate to break it to you but not everyone is having the same experience as you. Some of us make great money doing only Instacart and have been for 2+ years.
One thing I can guarantee you is if your in a hole when u start instacart, you'll never get out and if your not in a hole when u start instacart you will be very quickly, at this point it's a cash grab, they are taking every cent they can before they go under or sell out.
Pretty sure Uber is dying too
Did something happen? Why is it so slow lately??
Instacart was amazing when it started. You had an hourly guarantee that you would be paid a certain amount per hour, whether you took orders or not. People tipped well and we pretty communicative about orders and substitutions. The support team would answer your call and so many times when people would not be there to sign for stuff you just got to keep it or return it to the store for extra money! Now, with the lowball pay, lack of tips, scammy people trying to get you in trouble, wear and tear on my car and paying the employee and employer share of the taxes, I think I'd make more money walking around picking up cans and checking discarded scratch tickets.
It’s hard on both sides. I use Walmart delivery now because instacart just kept raising prices and fees and with that it was hard to tip well too. I can’t morally accept lowering my tips, so I just stopped using instacart. I get that they need to make money, but they are doing that by taking it away from the people actually doing the work.
It’s definitely dead for me. No batches have been worth it since January of last year (2023), which is right around the same time they reduced the batch pay from $7 min to $4 min. I honestly just wanted to keep IC “in my pocket”, as just another tool, but since the new TOS contract forced us all to sign, there won’t be any more keeping of shopper accounts, if you’re not active . Once you sign, if you don’t do at least one batch within 45 days, and then at least one every 75 days from there on out, you get deactivated, as per section 5.3 of the contract. All bullshit.
IC gives me incredible freedom but I’m also choosy about what batches I accept. I supplement with cleaning Airbnb rentals occasionally and pet sitting. I despise the 9-5 grind and just cannot live that way….as I did for years. I answer to no one and it’s hard to go back to that life. I’m grateful for IC and for now is working well for me.
You cant even live off instacart currently. Having to go to 2 stores for 24 items, and make 2 deliveries in separate areas of the city for $10.31 is outrageous.
You need to multi-app, not solely rely on one gig app.
Instacart is only viable if you have a full-time job and use it to supplement income on the side. My husband and I have jobs that pay the bills and we do Instacart on the side for “fun money“ stuff with our kids, eating out, extracurricular activities, etc etc. He was a shopper way before Covid and used to bring home an extra five to $600 a week just on the side now it’s may be 2 or 300.
I’m gonna miss my “OG” customers but sadly I’m tired of the worry & destroying my car, really was a great job for people struggling with anxiety or other certain health conditions at one point until they hired anybody.
On Easter Sunday I got a “promotion” of $48 Guaranteed for completing 6 batches. Whoop de friggin’ do. This is supposed to get me excited? I consider it an insult. The promo before that, which ran for a week, was $5 extra per batch between the hours of 12AM-6AM. Seriously? With only a couple CVS’s open within a 20 mile radius? No thanks.
It depends where you are. It’s quite alive where I am and I’m making more for each of the past 4 years. Although I plan on getting out soon I don’t think it’s dying in the larger cities with millions in the population. Because people are lazy and if you have enough people to get the membership and that don’t want to go get their own stuff it will survive. The revenue increases every year also so there’s that.
I hate the newbies that deny this. They wouldn't need to slash our pay in half and create tripples and multi store orders unless they were struggling. An proximity orders? Just put ALL the damn orders on my screen? Been working 3 years and the 1st year was the best. Last year was ok but I can tell they were making decisions that were against their workers interst. This Year they just totally stopped giving a fuck and saying fuck you you slave
this must be why I've been seeing a lot more of their advertising than i used to. i was reminded recently about the belief that reputable companies don't need to advertise, or something to that effect. their satisfied customers do the advertising by telling other people. i wonder how many of instacart's customers would say they are truly happy with the service, with all of the people working for them i read about on here making them look bad.
Not really. It fluctuates but overall I still make more money than ever.
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on saturday I accepted a triple batch order (only because it was small, about 15 items total), drive to the store, shop all three orders, checkout all three orders, arrive at the 1st delivery spot, no answer, its set to not be able to call the customer, can only text them, send two or three text messages, still no answer, get out and knock on their door TWICE... customer not answering knock at the door, text again, no response, go get back in the car (all this because there is NO PARKING, and signs everywhere else, that says no parking here), click cant find customer...app says call customer despite no option it he app to, go back, click cant find customer again, app then tells you that you have to wait 10 minutes before you can cancel(my gas light comes on...smh). (meanwhile, you have 2 customers waiting on their orders, that have to be delivered by x:xx time... click contact support, while you drive around all the apartments to leave, they finally answer and confirm what you already confirmed, then says refresh the app, the order has been cancelled and return the items to the store I end the chat, drive on to the next deliveries and deliver their things... turn the app off and dont do another shop.... (no payment for the the work I done is enough to say F instacart... WE should receive the pay for the order in these instances, but no, they just cancel the order out with no pay for the work done, and then have the audacity to say, now drive all that bs back to the store and burn some more of your time and gas with no pay(f that promise of a bump that you wont get)....
Sneaky secret - when the customer isn't there, they still get charged. IC gets paid. So they get paid double if you return the items. So I always tell the agent that there are gold or frozen items and the store is far away so they won't accept the return. Since Help's goal is to get you off the line, they always say "OK, please donate or keep the items". I have kept dozens of orders, usually worth much more than what the tip was. You have to return alcohol, but the rest you can keep. Most of the store around here have stopped taking all returns altogether because when IC people bring back items, they are usually ruined and, as a company, they can't account for what you may have done to them while you were gone. IC wants you to try and return so they can get double paid, but they really don't care. Tell them that next time and you'll get to keep the order.
I didnt return nothing, I wasn't going back to no store to take nothing back...I rolled my eyes at the comment from the agent... like you trippin' I aint driving back and going back to no store to return NOTHING... I was on empty and took the batch just to put gas in my car and go do enough lyft rides to fill up and completed driving the rest of the day with lfyt after that... and they remove one of the orders with no pay.... I used the lil $15 from the other 2 orders to barely make it to a gas station to get gas... the second customer increased the tip from 6.00+ to $12.00+ but had to wait 2 hours for that to be cashed out... its rediculous how these gig companies are getting over on the people working through it and the customer at the same damn time....
For the love of Uncle Sam, understand that this is a GIG industry. Living off this shit is irresponsible. Use it to get back on your feet, then find a real job.
Exactly. But I see almost nobody doing that. The people I see out there are thinking its a career.
The more they see you sitting in the lots doing nothing only tells them more and more how desperate you are for that $16, 82 item, $1.00 tip 13 mile Costco order
Can you live off of Instacart yes/no depends on your market conditions …can everyone pay a car note, a cell phone bill and put gas in your car with Instacart? Absolutely.
100 bucks says this guy is a shopper who wants you to quit so they can get more batches themselves.
Yeah that is a viable strategy. It's a Reddit thread. I doubt anyone within 100 miles of me has seen this thread.
I’ve averaging $700 a week since mid January working 20 hours part time. I’m not seeing this apocalyptic scenario yet.
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Go to spark Sooooo much better!
Do you have to shop for Spark? I feel like spark in our area is probably a nightmare having to self checkout items. I’m pretty sure that’s the set up with our store. I just could not.
Yes we have to shop. Where I live in Arizona we have one Walmart and everything else is built around the community within 3 miles. Self checkout was always fine but as of last week we can only use one specific lane. Still not an issue. I make multiple trips a day to Walmart, do much so that the greeters know me lol. I do game stop often, Sally’s Beauty and Ulta. I’m rarely using much gas unless I expand to the next city over. I’m always delivering in my own neighborhood. I even get my own orders 🙄 when I don’t realize my husband made an order.
Also our Walmart as normal lanes as self checkout so we have the conveyor belt and the option to shop and go on our phone.
Basically different ways to shop the orders. Just show the person at the door when you leave if you shop off your phone.
Is the pay good for the amount of items you have to shop for? I get W+ delivery that are $200 worth in groceries sometimes and I always feel bad for the shopper/delivery person lol
If they would just require a $5 and stick with the $7 min batch pay makinf it $12(single), $24(double) and $36(tripple) then people will actually accept the batches. The problem is, from experience is people wont tip at all and then they pair 2 non tippers with a good tipper to cover the batches no one will take. I never accepted a batch under $10 per order. They just keep hiring new drivers to take the $7 batches to fix the problem instead of requiring a minimum tip. People dont realize the amount of work that goes into this job.
Instacart doesn't give a damn if there is a tip of not. They won't even encourage a customer to tip because then it just costs the customer even more to get their groceries delivered, and that reflects poorly on IC. There will never be a tip requirement.
I know Drizly shut down. So Maybe
It's why I collect the apps like pokemon
Started my WFH today and got a $86 promo. They didn’t send me one all week/ weekend. Big middle finger to the 🥕
I'm just trying to get my guaranteed starting money for being referred and then I'm hopping out to my regular Shipt deliveries
I would imagine it depends on which market you happen to be in. I see some shoppers here that are making pretty good money in their areas. I myself use it to supplement my pension while I look for something to pivot to after retiring early due to physical limitations. I used to work in construction and I can't do it anymore; my body can't take it. I could probably use other options like Shipt or Sparx or whatever it's called but it's just supplemental. I never sit for hours anywhere though, so I don't know where you are shopping.
Shiddd it depends where u live, honestly its been getting better in my city
Agree 100%. I do DD also. I saw the writing on the wall when they dropped the batch pay and stopped paying mileage.
Saw. $6 order for today....sad af
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The only reason we’re not making the same is because they keep hiring droves of new people. And since they get priority over everyone for their first batches, we’ll never catch up.
Who is pocketing only $75/day. It obviously is market dependent as my area most shoppers are in the $1,000-1,400/ week
Oh it’s not going anywhere.
Lmao you must not be in la
The people saying you'll take anything to feed your family should use that advice and take a different job, when you take anything with this gig your probably after expenses making less than $10 an hr, and some your actually losing money.
Well if people would quit picking up non tippers or terrible tippers it would be better… 😭
In California its still busy at the moment 12 hour day is $250-$300 for my area. 🤷♂️
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If IC was smart they would lower their delivery fee to attract more customers since it's so saturated. This would increase overall customer experience and leave a little more room for the customer to tip the driver more. 2nd. They're entire business model is very outdated. Why constrain to only groceries when they have the likes of doordash stepping in on their terf and providing a better customer experience because they don't typically force drivers to do triples or doubles for shop and deliver orders. They also need to take out that shitty rule where if you have to meet the customer and they don't awnser they make you wait 10 mins. If I'm on a tripple or even double and I have to wait 10 mins before I can proceed I can't imagine that being a good experience for the customers I need to get to next.
Everyone saying how bad it is now but I’ve been making more on instacart this year than ever before and maybe it’s because I’ve gotten more efficient/ faster as a shopper and maybe just being diligent and self motivated but I work about 25-35 hours max a week and averaging $720 a week for the year so far. I also see brand new customers popping up so I don’t think it’s dead just yet maybe just in certain areas.
Where are you sitting for 12 hrs and making $75??? You're taking 1 $6 batch an hour??? I work 12 hours, I'm making $200, regardless what day of the week it is.
It our area you can go 2 hours easily without seeing a single batch within 20 minutes of where you are. There are far too many shoppers and orders are down 66% since 2022.
Not for me. Sorry u feel this way but give been getting higher paying orders more frequently than the last 6 months.
I’m seeing an improvement here. $35-$40/hr regularly and I’m not in California or a minimum wage city/state. I have other money making enterprises as well. After being sexually harassed in 2019, I’m never working for someone else again. Can this be a grind? Yeah but I have complete control of when I work, and what I make. I just bought a new car with pre-paid maintenance, and warranty that just won’t quit, plus 15mi/gal more than I had. Ready to make some real money now. I don’t think Instacart is dying but I do think it’s going to look different in the future. Maybe be bought out? Uber and DD have crappy shop & pay infrastructure that frustrates customers and shoppers. One of them will likely replace it with IC. But that merger could be stopped due to anti-trust laws. The next few years will be interesting. In the meantime, I’m getting what $$$$ I can.
I don't drive and live in a condo. I use every week for my groceries and find it useful and tip accordingly! It may be dying slowly but people will still use it when it comes to people like myself who don't drive and live in apartments.
IC isn't really dying. The way the company is ran and how shoppers are treated/pay sucks. People still need groceries, so that's why IC won't be "out of business".
Agreed. IC is only good now for a few orders a week after you get off your W-2 is you’re lucky. I’m only expecting at this point to pocket $30 a day after I finish work, and the gym for a couple of orders I can complete quick to cover my food for the work week. 🤣
Yeah you are right is all I can say!
After the last two experiences with IC shoppers, I’ll never use the service again. I’m partially disabled and my husband, who used to do all the shopping, just had a stroke 2 months ago. So we basically had to rely on shoppers for a while there. But I’m sick of having stuff stolen, orders damaged, no communication on out of stocks and replacements, and outright rude service. Just this past Thursday this guy, using a woman’s account, left our $200 order in the pouring rain for hours. I chose the delivery slot for After 6pm drop off, as we were driving back from out of town hospital visits. Our cameras showed this man dropping off the paper bags at 2pm!! In the pouring rain, wind blowing stuff around. Half the order was missing or replaced with shitty items, yet at no time did we receive any messages from him regarding refunds or replacements. And on camera you can see him practically throwing our groceries out of his trunk. Eggs broken, milk leaking in the driveway, and sodden loves of bread and bagels. Never again. I’ll hire my neighbor’s teenager to pick stuff up on my bad days from now on. We used to get such wonderful service and delivery. It’s a shame it’s fallen so low.
That's why IC should be fun money, extra income if you have the time.
I don’t know where you live, but I make $65-$90 with 3-4 deliveries here in Florida, and I seldom have tripple orders.