CALIFORNIA WILL BE COMING FOR YOU SOON! - Anonymous employee Instacart Employee Review

2.0
4 Sept 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great flexibility, nice side hustle, meet new customers, zone out and shop until you drop! Get familiarized with store layouts and different foods from around the world! I truly enjoy it and was WINNING...at first...

Cons

No guarantee pay. MUST work scheduled hours. No limit on heavy items. Let your customers know this is not a commercial service. Some of these people want 25-50 cases of water. You call over to Instacart to reject. They say you HAVE to do it! I don’t have to do a darn thing! Then they say okay, well don’t tell other shoppers. Smh...I’m telling all the shoppers, if they don’t want to injure themselves...don’t do it! WTH! We need some type of mileage coverage, have you checked the gas prices in Cali??? Oh okay, y’all don’t care! I take batches I want without being penalized (loophole). We shouldn’t be penalized anyway, were independent contractors right? Then the 20 min breaks when some work 10-12 hr days. You need to include an option for (2)30 min shifts when working past 10 hours. LAST BUT NOT LEAST the pay rates keep going down down down. I don’t feel valued as a shopper. I’m in excellent shape and refuse to break my body down or my car! You don’t pay health insurance. Now, the speed time is going up. I REFUSE, to burn myself out. This is NOT supermarket sweep (although it’s fun)! Incompetent staff! The customers service we receive is horrible. No one is on the same page, they don’t help you. Hell, sometimes I get off the phone feeling like I’m in worst shape then when I called. (CALIFORNIA COMING FOR YOU). People we start striking and asking for more money. The last 6 months the rates dropped from $7 now $3.80...have y’all lost your freakin mind?!

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5.0
29 Mar 2026
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Pros

Great gig that can be done on flexible hours.

Cons

Gas prices having been go up.

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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