So I’ve been doing instacart to make ends meet before I started my new job.

What I’ve learned is that many people have zero regard for the people getting their groceries. If an order requires a face to face interaction (alcohol, Rx, customer requests hand off) 90% aren’t masked.

The other thing I’ve noticed in Phoenix metro is that about 40% of people don’t tip at all. I’m talking orders that would take 30 to 60 mins of shopping time and they’re tipping nothing. The minimum instacart order is $7 for the shopper.

Imagine either being too lazy to grocery shop or too scared to shop cuz of COVID and not tipping the person doing the shopping, the lifting of your items, and dragging them up 3 flights of stairs sometimes. The insanity and selfishness of this amazes me.

People will give you bad ratings for the dumbest shit like not finding an item because it’s out of stock. They complain because you replace an item with their requested replacement. And IC doesn’t really do shit in this regard for the shoppers, you’re at the mercy of the customer

I will say this, instacart is why I’ve been able to pay my bills since losing my second job in 9 months. But the exploitation is real. There are people who tip appropriately and truly appreciate and respect shoppers, but they’re the minority of instacart customers.

Ultimately the gig economy is a joke. I was already a good tipper on DoorDash and Uber/Lyft before this but I’ll be an even better tipper for now on. The shit you deal with is nuts.