More Investment Needed in both Ops Employees and Contractors - Anonymous employee Instacart Employee Review

3.0
20 Sept 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The concept, while not novel is the most functional, and friendly iteration of the grocery delivery model. Startup environment provides for a fast workday and ownership and pride in work.

Cons

Contractors are treated like dirt, and the organization sees them as expendable (even if they are, there is simply no excuse to do so). Ops teams should be larger and also be able to delegate more to part-time employees at stores. There need to be more opportunities to grow from within, and ways to encourage and teach non-ops employees Ops functions.

Explore other reviews about Instacart

5.0
27 Apr 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Focused direction. Good WLB. Decent pay. Fully remote.

Cons

A bit slow growth on business and career

1
2.0
21 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fun going out and talking to people. You will interact with people everyday. You control how much you get paid. Lots of flexibility in the time between accepting an order and traveling to the store and beginning to shop. It isn't pedal to the metal to get to the store like DoorDash is. You can also cancel batches after accepting as long as you keep your rate under 15%. This is different from DoorDash where your rankings will suffer if g.t. 2% cancellation rate.

Cons

There's a learning curve and it takes a while to learn each chain of stores' items. Once you become proficient at one store, the algorithm will lowball your offers relative to other less-experienced Instacart shoppers. Overall, Instacart shoppers likely get paid similar or less than the store's regular employees.

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