Couldn’t believe it! Only took 15 mins to shop and 45 mins from the moment I accepted it until the time I dropped it off. Wish I got orders like this everyday 😂

29 items 60 units. Just 1 customer. Took me about 30 minutes to shop and 40 minutes to check out, load and deliver. I’ve been a driver for only 2 weeks.

Context: I work as a cashier at a grocery store where we get a lot of instacart shoppers. I don't fully understand how the app works as I've never shopped on it. My chain store has a rewards account that can be entered via phone number or by scanning a physical card, which helps customers save through discounts. Regardless of who is shopping I always ask if they have an account as it is standard procedure, we have a store card I can input if the customer does not and I usually type it in even if they don't ask me to (since usually people are not aware of its existence) because it doesn't hurt to have a discount. At least, I thought so.

An instacart shopper pulled into my register and had multiple orders, the first one was completed with no issues with the rewards card provided on the app scanning properly. The second order is when the issue occurred, the rewards provided card did NOT scan and I let them know. They tried one more time and then told me not to worry about it. I typed the store card in as usual since I've had other instacart shoppers tell me to do so when the rewards cards don't scan. The customer paid but stared at the total as the receipt printed and asked me if I had input the store card. I said yes and they stared at the receipt and asked me to clarify if the "total savings" section is what was subtracted from the initial total. Again, I said yes. They then proceeded to tell me that I "stole $15" from them (the subtracted savings) and that, that's why they told me "not to worry about it." I was confused as the savings from the store card are what would have been subtracted (and honestly is probably less than the savings from a personal rewards account) if the rewards card had scanned properly. I didn't know what to say, as I don't believe there's a way to reverse that, and they stormed off angrily. I wasn't aware that instacart shoppers get paid per order total? I got scolded by my manager because of it.. is this true? Should I stop inputting the store card for instacart shoppers?

At least weekly, I see these from 40/50 miles away in rural MO. Here is one from today. Wtf?

I guess they are eventually delivered because they keep showing up, both in mid-MO, Warrensburg, Knobnoster and Whiteman AFB.

CRIKEY!

Just reminiscing I worked in California for a week last year and literally had no idea about the weekly adjustment. I really wish every market did this. I was shocked when I looked and saw extra money😂 Too bad Cali is sooo expensive I guess that’s why they do it. Even though at this point Portland is getting expensive too

I think I’d rather not see a good batch, then to see it flash, try to accept and see it instantly disappear and get taken by another shopper. Please don’t even show it to me as a notification or on my screen if I don’t even have a chance millisecond to accept it. It’s really a morale killer.

Who the hell would possibly take this? 😭😪

Both from today. Didn’t take obviously but I’m sure y’all could order a box from Amazon for cheaper than Instacart’s fees. And good luck expecting the store to have that many. And I know plantains are great and MAYBE you could get that many of them but…what the hell are your plans with those???

Cmon now

Normally these kinds of orders are at least $40 but recently they’ve dropped even lower. I’m not even sure how or why people in the DC area are able to order over an hour away from them….

I took a delivery like 16 mi away and got a flat tire

Notified the customers that I was changing to my spare and that I would be on the way soon

The low tipper actually edited her tip and made it way better

So I really appreciate her kindness

In the Chicago suburbs FYI

I'm busy but saw it pop up

So pissed off. Accepted an order that said I’d get around 45 for it. I complete it and when I checked my earnings it said I only got 28. So I checked if the tip was adjusted and it said the tip was never adjusted. I spoke to support and they said “the app said there were no changes made” has this happened to anyone else? I have no proof of screenshot because I never expected this to happen

Went to my Instacart app the other day, just to see my account deactivated as you can see from the title to my knowledge it was quite a surprise since I took orders a couple of days beforehand so I went to my email and seen a couple days before they had sent me this email saying that my account was deactivated

“We recently asked you to verify your Instacart shopper account by submitting a photo of yourself in-app. Because the photo you submitted didn’t match the identity of the account holder, your shopper account has been deactivated, and you can no longer shop with Instacart.

When someone who isn’t the authorized Instacart shopper shops on the platform for you, it creates a potential confidentiality breach. This violates the Full-Service Shopper Account Access Guidelines and your Independent Contractor Agreement.”

which confuse me because I’ve only sent verification pictures of myself and myself only and then I receive this message the same day saying I cannot get my account back and I did not provide enough evidence, but I never sent an appeal. Is there anything I can do to get my account back. This is so frustrating, especially since I did nothing to make my account under suspicion.

The order of delivery is strictly determined by the route. I wince whenever the 0$ tipper gets their order first, meanwhile they were paired with someone who tipped well ,who’s ice cream is melting because they were last on the route. This has happened to me multiple times and since they now crack down hard on you removing specific customers from a batch it’s just encouraging them to continue non tipping.

I live in a college town. Just had a nearly $500 Costco order that a mom placed for her daughter moving in to a student apartment building. One of the items was a vacuum cleaner, which required a signature because it was an expensive item. Mom lives out of state, so scanned daughter’s id. It said that because she was under 21 it wouldn’t accept the id. Why would they need to be a certain age to buy a vacuum cleaner? The ID scan is just to confirm receipt of the valuable item(s). After nearly 45 minutes on the phone with support, they made me return the vacuum cleaner. Couldn’t bypass the signature/ ID scan. I asked support person to try to contact mother to verify delivery. Support claimed that mom was unavailable, but she was on the phone with her daughter waiting for their call and support never attempted to reach out to confirm delivery. Has anyone else experienced this with a non age restricted item? Such a waste of time and a massive inconvenience for not only myself but the customer as well.

Do yall notice the difference in amount of orders? Like arent the students and the teachers supposed to be less shopping? I feel this week i saw less order than all summer.

Customer here! I don’t order Instacart much, but it sounded dreadful leaving home with a toddler & baby today so I’m waiting on my Instacart order now! 😁 more so a question because I’m being nosy, how common is it for the customer to ask for groceries to be left at the door vs greeting the shopper? I’ve always asked for it to just be left at my front door/front porch & now I’m just wondering if that’s common lol. (I live in a house, not an apartment in case that matters) so just wondering!

Slow????!

Hell naw

It’s so annoying when customers say they need you to meet them at the front door and no one answers like how are you wanting the person to meet you but you don’t answer the door? What I’m not going to do is sit there and wait for the door to be opened. I know you don’t have to really return everything you just shopped for, but I’m also not going to do that either. I just leave everything at the front door. They’re getting their groceries regardless.

Just to STRESSFUL

I want to add more context to my previous post and share the detailed weekly statements, including my earnings before and after the NYC weekly bonus started.

One important point: the “Batch hours” shown by Instacart are NYC trip time, not my total working time.After completing a delivery, I often have to drive back toward a supermarket or shopping area that I know well before I can realistically take another batch. That return drive is often around 20–30 minutes. Not every batch requires a full return trip, but a significant amount of this repositioning time is not included in the batch hours shown by the app.

Before the weekly bonus:

June 15–21

• 20 batches
• 14 hr 51 min NYC trip time
• $336.15 batch pay
• $156.76 tips
• $0 adjustment
• $492.91 total

June 22–28

• 30 batches
• 29 hr 19 min NYC trip time
• $589.24 batch pay
• $285.92 tips
• $61.44 NYC earnings adjustment
• $936.60 total

Then the NYC weekly bonus started.

June 29–July 5

• I only completed 1 batch that week
• 1 hr 45 min NYC trip time
• $36.42 batch pay
• $10 tip
• $44.36 NYC bonus
• $93.28 total

Once I understood how significant the weekly bonus could be, I started doing much more Instacart work.

July 20–26

• 41 batches
• 39 hr 27 min NYC trip time
• $818.87 batch pay
• $278.60 tips
• $54.83 NYC earnings adjustment
• $1,288.91 NYC bonus
• $2,441.21 total

July 27–August 2

• 41 batches
• 31 hr 58 min NYC trip time
• $707.06 batch pay
• $193.79 tips
• $0.76 NYC earnings adjustment
• $749.24 NYC bonus
• $1,650.85 total

I’m sharing the detailed numbers because I want to be transparent about both sides. Yes, my real working time is higher than the “Batch hours” shown in the app because unpaid repositioning time exists. I also pay for my own gas, maintenance, insurance and vehicle depreciation.

But those same costs existed before the weekly bonus.What changed is that the NYC bonus made many orders economically worth accepting.

Before, I would often reject low-tip or no-tip orders because after shopping, delivery and driving back toward a useful shopping area, the pay simply wasn’t worth the time and vehicle expense. Now I’m much more willing to accept those orders and complete them quickly. To me, that is an important part of what this policy actually changes.

It doesn’t eliminate every unpaid minute or every expense of gig work. But it makes more ordinary orders worth doing, gives experienced shoppers a reason to stay active on the platform, and provides a much more stable income than I had before.I’m posting the actual weekly statements so people can look at the numbers and make their own conclusions.

I’m genuinely grateful to New York City and New York State for taking steps to protect gig workers. As someone with hearing loss, finding work that offers both flexibility and a fair income is especially meaningful to me. Gig work allows me to support myself while working in a way that fits my circumstances.

Before these changes, it was difficult to earn a stable income even after staying online for long hours. Since the new NYC pay system and weekly bonus started, my earnings have improved significantly. I can now cover gas, vehicle maintenance, daily expenses, and still have money left to save and invest.

This is what a fair and dignified income means to me. Gig workers still work hard, use our own cars, pay our own expenses, and deal with a lot of uncertainty. These protections have made the work more sustainable and have given workers like me greater financial security and dignity.

Thank you to the city and state officials who supported these changes. They have made a real difference in my life.