Instacart Shoppers
Instacart Shoppers Employee Reviews
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Featured review
Instacart Shoppers selected this as a representative review
Great pay and fun job
Shopper (Current Employee) – Toronto – 12 December 2018
Started as a shopper after seeing the posting on indeed. Found the payments to be very good for the amount of time and effort involved. Some customers tip very well, which makes a big difference. And it gets me out of my car and on my feet.
Pros
Active, Fun, Flexible
Cons
Use your own car and phhone
Like being paid to shop
Independent Contractor (Current Employee) – Toronto, ON – 17 March 2019
Overall I have liked working for Instacart. I like how flexible it is to work but the work load to how much we get paid is unreasonable.
I also think that top performs should be given an opportunity to advance with the company but management makes no effort in this regards which is disappointing.
I also think that top performs should be given an opportunity to advance with the company but management makes no effort in this regards which is disappointing.
Pros
You get paid weekly
Cons
It gets slow, time is wasted and the batches are low in pay not worth taking
Official response from Instacart Shoppers
21 March 2019
As we continue to grow we're excited about more and more opportunities for Full Service Shoppers to grow their careers at Instacart! We'll continue to let all our Shoppers know about opportunities as they arise.
Flexible and great pay!
Shopper (Current Employee) – Edmonton, AB – 16 March 2019
I have been an Instacart Shopper for about 5 months. In that time I have come to enjoy the very flexible hours (pick when you want to work), the great pay ($25-35 an hour on a slow day and $45-55 an hour on a busy day).
I love being my own boss. Deciding what hours I want to do and how busy I want to be. I have kids and being able to work around them and provide for them is great. Instacart has been a fantastic choice for me (yes I was once as sceptical as you are now). Take a chance what do you have to loss.
http://inst.cr/t/z5Lqen5bB
I love being my own boss. Deciding what hours I want to do and how busy I want to be. I have kids and being able to work around them and provide for them is great. Instacart has been a fantastic choice for me (yes I was once as sceptical as you are now). Take a chance what do you have to loss.
http://inst.cr/t/z5Lqen5bB
Pros
Flexibility
Cons
Slow days
Cool app gives customers time back
Shopper (Current Employee) – Vancouver, BC – 15 March 2019
It's nice to help families with their groceries and meet a lot of the people that you're helping in the community, including families and the elderly.
Pros
Helping community, independence, flexibility
Cons
Limited benefits
Silly Pay
Shopper (Former Employee) – Surrey, BC – 1 March 2019
Extremely low pay. I don't expect to make as much as a trades person but I should be making more than min wage ...no? Stick around the zone and wait 3 hours to get some fat basement dweller to ask for no name brand processed foods and give you a poor tip.
Avoid it unless you like burning you gas to make $20/day if that much
Avoid it unless you like burning you gas to make $20/day if that much
Pros
No boss
Cons
Everything else
slow moving for a delivery company
Driver/Operator (Former Employee) – Vancouver, BC – 26 February 2019
Takes forever to get on board to make less than minimum .
waste of time, hard to deal with company, no one seems to know what they are doing they move slower than snails
waste of time, hard to deal with company, no one seems to know what they are doing they move slower than snails
Pros
none
Cons
everything about them is confusing, no contact person, takes for ever to board
Official response from Instacart Shoppers
21 March 2019
Sorry to hear you haven't had a great experience. If you're experiencing any issues with onboarding or shopping we're here to help. Please email us at shoppers@instacart.com. We've also introduced in-app support!
Awful Experience
Shopper (Current Employee) – Regina, SK – 12 February 2019
A typical day at work you select your hours in days that you are available then you have 6 hours to cancel your hours otherwise you get reliability incident which damage your reputation
Pros
nothing good about this company
Cons
Longer application process, unfair pay
Official response from Instacart Shoppers
21 March 2019
We're starting to get very busy in Regina. If your experience was a bit slow around launch then feel free to schedule some hours and see what's changed!
Unfortunately shoppers won’t last longer if this new payment continues to be in place
Full service shopper (Former Employee) – Toronto, ON – 3 January 2019
Worse than worst experience. The new payment system is awful and unfair.
The refferal claims huge amount and end of the day you get get the amount that doesn’t even worth truffles box.
This ain’t worth reffering.
Loads other apps are much better try ‘em.
I quit and spread the word for others betterment too.
You can earn way better on uber, uber eats, lyft etc..
The refferal claims huge amount and end of the day you get get the amount that doesn’t even worth truffles box.
This ain’t worth reffering.
Loads other apps are much better try ‘em.
I quit and spread the word for others betterment too.
You can earn way better on uber, uber eats, lyft etc..
Pros
Lamentably None
Cons
Everything...
The old structure to pay was way better, the structure is awful, you don’t make money, Instacart offers very flexible hours but the pay is not good. A
Shoppers (Current Employee) – Toronto, ON – 19 December 2018
The old structure to pay was way better, the structure is awful, you don’t make money, Instacart offers very flexible hours but the pay is not good. Aalso the zones are not clear . For
Example: I’m zone to work in Brampton Ontario and the only Wal-mart is in Mississauga and the delivery is back in Brampton for a $10.00 batch. Over a half of hour drive.
Example: I’m zone to work in Brampton Ontario and the only Wal-mart is in Mississauga and the delivery is back in Brampton for a $10.00 batch. Over a half of hour drive.
Pros
Good work hours
Cons
The old structure to pay was way better, the structure is awful, you don’t make money, Instacart offers very flexible hours but the pay is not good.
New warning structure is absolutely a nightmare for shoppers
Fulltime shopper (Current Employee) – Toronto, Ontario – 11 December 2018
First Day of Experience on New Earning Structure (Absolutely Nightmare)
I have to say this is absolutely nightmare for us on this new earning structure. This is not a incentive program but a absolutely driving-shopper-away program.
Before I explain why this doesn’t make sense to me, let me give you some figures which also a calculation that matter to me or to most of shoppers the most. After a year working with Instacart, i have slowly built up experience and familiarity in the whole system and with all superstores in my area. My average in my area is around 70 sec per item and this has been contributing to my earning a lot before they changed the whole structure. and i could earn at least 25 per hour according to my last 4 weeks report.
I had just finished my first shift of 3 hours since the new structure imposed, my earning was 25 for two batches (one 10 and the other one 15). Let me convert to my preferred calculation is 8.3 per hour without deduction of gas, car deprecation. And you are telling me this is FAIR??
About the new earning structure, I really have no idea why they advertised this is better than the previous one. There are lots of factors affecting the incentive like store location, layout, difficulty of item, time of day store size, checkout type, etc. i have no understanding about why these matter that much to the whole earning structure.
First of all, the store size, checkout type has really less impact on our shopping experience because once we get familiar with the store layout we basically know where to get the items our customer requested. more... it might be considerable to new shoppers but how many shoppers here are new, we are sophisticated shoppers with experience.
Secondly, the store location, distance between the store and customer place matter. However, there is one important factor is not considered: the distance between my current location to the designated store. we have to spend time to travel to the store and spend time on traffic which is not compensated. when it comes to the earning. we spend the same time to complete an order but with way less earning in comparison with previous structure.
Thirdly, peak time earning is making zero sense. The number of shoppers they accept during the peak time frame is decided by the system by how many customer orders available during the specific time. it means, to individual shopper, peak time doesn’t mean we can shop for more batches because if we can consistently receive batches during peak time, the number of batches we can do in maximum is still not increased. However, it looks like peak earning is lured but our basic earning is way less than before. When it comes to final earning, we still work for the same number of batches by the end of shift but make less money than we had made before.
Fourthly, 0.4 dollor per kg distance pay is absolutely unfair pay. Thinking about downtown area, how many batches would be actually needed for travel distance more than 10km. BUT we still need time to travel to store, find parking lot, load and unload goods, stuck in traffic, walk up to customer unit in high-floors building, etc. All I what to say is the time spending for a batch is not merely calculated by the distance between targeted store and customer’s place, there are lots of contributors that we, as a shopper, need to spend time to fulfill, and time is money.
To sum up, from 25 per hour to 8 per hour, this is absolutely nightmare and the least appealing quick-cash work i would choose to do. If we cannot make fair money from this job, then why are we contributing our effort and time to work for them.
I have been with Instacart since the first time the the program was rolled out on 2017 but now I am considering leaving. UNFAIR JOB.. less
I have to say this is absolutely nightmare for us on this new earning structure. This is not a incentive program but a absolutely driving-shopper-away program.
Before I explain why this doesn’t make sense to me, let me give you some figures which also a calculation that matter to me or to most of shoppers the most. After a year working with Instacart, i have slowly built up experience and familiarity in the whole system and with all superstores in my area. My average in my area is around 70 sec per item and this has been contributing to my earning a lot before they changed the whole structure. and i could earn at least 25 per hour according to my last 4 weeks report.
I had just finished my first shift of 3 hours since the new structure imposed, my earning was 25 for two batches (one 10 and the other one 15). Let me convert to my preferred calculation is 8.3 per hour without deduction of gas, car deprecation. And you are telling me this is FAIR??
About the new earning structure, I really have no idea why they advertised this is better than the previous one. There are lots of factors affecting the incentive like store location, layout, difficulty of item, time of day store size, checkout type, etc. i have no understanding about why these matter that much to the whole earning structure.
First of all, the store size, checkout type has really less impact on our shopping experience because once we get familiar with the store layout we basically know where to get the items our customer requested. more... it might be considerable to new shoppers but how many shoppers here are new, we are sophisticated shoppers with experience.
Secondly, the store location, distance between the store and customer place matter. However, there is one important factor is not considered: the distance between my current location to the designated store. we have to spend time to travel to the store and spend time on traffic which is not compensated. when it comes to the earning. we spend the same time to complete an order but with way less earning in comparison with previous structure.
Thirdly, peak time earning is making zero sense. The number of shoppers they accept during the peak time frame is decided by the system by how many customer orders available during the specific time. it means, to individual shopper, peak time doesn’t mean we can shop for more batches because if we can consistently receive batches during peak time, the number of batches we can do in maximum is still not increased. However, it looks like peak earning is lured but our basic earning is way less than before. When it comes to final earning, we still work for the same number of batches by the end of shift but make less money than we had made before.
Fourthly, 0.4 dollor per kg distance pay is absolutely unfair pay. Thinking about downtown area, how many batches would be actually needed for travel distance more than 10km. BUT we still need time to travel to store, find parking lot, load and unload goods, stuck in traffic, walk up to customer unit in high-floors building, etc. All I what to say is the time spending for a batch is not merely calculated by the distance between targeted store and customer’s place, there are lots of contributors that we, as a shopper, need to spend time to fulfill, and time is money.
To sum up, from 25 per hour to 8 per hour, this is absolutely nightmare and the least appealing quick-cash work i would choose to do. If we cannot make fair money from this job, then why are we contributing our effort and time to work for them.
I have been with Instacart since the first time the the program was rolled out on 2017 but now I am considering leaving. UNFAIR JOB.. less
Pros
Flexible schedule
Cons
Huge cut in pay, unfair pay
Hate gig economy
Personal Shopper (Former Employee) – Calgary, AB – 12 November 2018
I took this job to learn driving in Calgary better. I achieved that, and LOST money attempting to earn some. The zones for Instacart are too big to serve and actually make money.
Fundamental Flaw in the company
Full Service (Former Employee) – Coquitlam, BC – 25 October 2018
You have to book off a minimum of two shifts in order to start working. You are then expected to wait in the zone until you get sent a job. If you leave the zone or if you decide to end your shift early, you get a reliability incident. They DO NOT pay you while you are waiting. So lets recap. They don't pay you, you are required to stay in a zone and wait until a job comes your way unless you want to be punished. Hmmm....how is that fair?
I've stopped working for them as it is nonsense. Go work for Uber Eats or Door Dash where you can drop in and out as you please without punishment.
Average Shopping trip takes about an hour and a half. You will be paid something like $15. Not worth it.
I've stopped working for them as it is nonsense. Go work for Uber Eats or Door Dash where you can drop in and out as you please without punishment.
Average Shopping trip takes about an hour and a half. You will be paid something like $15. Not worth it.
Pros
If you work in a busy area, then maybe scheduling works for you
Cons
Need to stay in your zone and wait, No pay while waiting, ending earlier and you will receive a reliability incident, Pay is not worth it for the amount of work you need to do
Flexible hours. Income not quaranteed
Grocery delivery driver (Former Employee) – Toronto, ON – 22 July 2018
Mobile app usage. Need to have cell phone with large data plan and roaming. Sometimes the server connection can be troublesome. Ie. You might lose wifi connection during a job. App is inflexible regarding cancel of shifts or work schedules. They penalize for cancelling shifts and ending work early.
Pros
Flexible. Simple work. Comfortable work environment as a shopper
Cons
No guarantee of income. Shifts maybe slow due to lack of online shoppers
Instacart
Instacart shopper (Former Employee) – Burlington, ON – 6 July 2018
The app is easy to understand install which is good. The layout over is well displayed, but the payout is terrible. This is not Ideal or promising at all. I would never recommend this company to anyone. Customer service sucks it does not get back to you with requires to meet the need of the employee. The promised hourly rate is never received upon doing the hours that is required. Do not look into wasting or investing your time into this company it’s not worth the time.
Pros
Nothing
Cons
No payout & bad costumer service
Takes Advantage of It's Employees
Instacart Shopper (Current Employee) – Canada – 22 May 2018
I've worked one shift as an instacart shopper and I already hate it. I signed up for an 8-hour shift thinking I would be paid at least minimum wage for those hours. Turns out you only get paid depending on how many deliveries you do and I only did one. So I sat around for 8 hours and got paid $11.80.
Pros
Nothing
Cons
Low pay
Stay Away
Shopper (Former Employee) – Scarborough, ON – 26 March 2018
If you are a shopper for this company, stay away!
There are a lot other mystery shopping and food delivery companies that is MUCH more pay than this.
I worked for 3 months and I realized this company now has the WORST payout in the history of all the delivery company I know.
Stay away, it is not worth it.
There are a lot other mystery shopping and food delivery companies that is MUCH more pay than this.
I worked for 3 months and I realized this company now has the WORST payout in the history of all the delivery company I know.
Stay away, it is not worth it.
Pros
Flexibility
Cons
Low Pay
Good experience in Customer Service
Delivery Driver (Current Employee) – BC., Canada – 16 March 2018
Can pick your hours and zone that is convenient for you. Good experience for store shopping and pick of replacements item of not available
Good to improve navigation skills and app software.
Good to improve navigation skills and app software.
Pros
Free Launchers
Cons
No benifits and hourly rate
Not worth your time
shopper (Former Employee) – Durham Region, ON – 27 February 2018
it took forever to set up the app, get the card in the mail and have my background check go through.
Just to realize they want me to deliver groceries North York ... I'm still not sure how 'getting hours' works on the app.
Just to realize they want me to deliver groceries North York ... I'm still not sure how 'getting hours' works on the app.
Fun job but painfully frustrating at times
Shopper (Current Employee) – Durham Region, ON, Toronto & GTA – 27 February 2018
I started out with this company as soon as they came into Canada - I was already working as a delivery contractor so this seemed like a great opportunity.
Overall, the job itself is a lot of fun, since I enjoy grocery shopping, but the company and the app frustrate me beyond belief at times.
For example: you need to maintain a certain amount of hours to get what the call "Early Access Hours" meaning you pick your hours for the following week (not the current upcoming) on Sunday at 9am. Great - if you have full-time availability; if you're trying to balance multiple jobs and schedule according to familial commitments, good luck. If you don't average 30 hours per week (you have to work a total of 90 hours in 3 weeks) then you cannot pick your hours until Wednesday, by which point the pickings are slim. I live in Durham and want to work in Durham (this job involves enough driving without having to commute to other zones), but lately I am stuck desperately scraping together shifts downtown and in East or North York or Markham if I am lucky. Hours DO free up over the course of the week but that involves you obsessively looking at your phone every 20 minutes. How do you expect us to work full-time hours if there ARE NONE FROM WHICH TO PICK? I think 90 hours in three weeks is unreasonable, since like I said that's full-time work. You start out with Early Access so yes you could simply maintain it if this is indeed your only job, but that involves a whole lot of gas and/or waiting doing nothing sometimes.
The app - it is glitchy as all heck even though they are constantly more... updating it. In the updates they acknowledge bugs and claim they are fixed only for me to notices the same things happening, like shifts showing the wrong times or the acceptance screen bugging out or something.
I often lose connectivity even when I have full service and store Wifi is usually garbage on the rare times I've needed to rely on that (ie. the Leslieville Loblaws).
Shopper support isn;t particularly helpful. They sometimes take a few days to respond to your ticket and sometimes don't even acknowledge your main issue. I've received almost arbitrary responses to questions I haven't asked.
Anyway, done rambling.
If you want to do this for fun, go for it, and it can be awesome if you've been laid off or recently out of school and are having a hard time finding good work, like I am. But be forewarned that if you need to rely on this heavily you MAY go nuts. Although if you're chill and patient, maybe not. haha less
Overall, the job itself is a lot of fun, since I enjoy grocery shopping, but the company and the app frustrate me beyond belief at times.
For example: you need to maintain a certain amount of hours to get what the call "Early Access Hours" meaning you pick your hours for the following week (not the current upcoming) on Sunday at 9am. Great - if you have full-time availability; if you're trying to balance multiple jobs and schedule according to familial commitments, good luck. If you don't average 30 hours per week (you have to work a total of 90 hours in 3 weeks) then you cannot pick your hours until Wednesday, by which point the pickings are slim. I live in Durham and want to work in Durham (this job involves enough driving without having to commute to other zones), but lately I am stuck desperately scraping together shifts downtown and in East or North York or Markham if I am lucky. Hours DO free up over the course of the week but that involves you obsessively looking at your phone every 20 minutes. How do you expect us to work full-time hours if there ARE NONE FROM WHICH TO PICK? I think 90 hours in three weeks is unreasonable, since like I said that's full-time work. You start out with Early Access so yes you could simply maintain it if this is indeed your only job, but that involves a whole lot of gas and/or waiting doing nothing sometimes.
The app - it is glitchy as all heck even though they are constantly more... updating it. In the updates they acknowledge bugs and claim they are fixed only for me to notices the same things happening, like shifts showing the wrong times or the acceptance screen bugging out or something.
I often lose connectivity even when I have full service and store Wifi is usually garbage on the rare times I've needed to rely on that (ie. the Leslieville Loblaws).
Shopper support isn;t particularly helpful. They sometimes take a few days to respond to your ticket and sometimes don't even acknowledge your main issue. I've received almost arbitrary responses to questions I haven't asked.
Anyway, done rambling.
If you want to do this for fun, go for it, and it can be awesome if you've been laid off or recently out of school and are having a hard time finding good work, like I am. But be forewarned that if you need to rely on this heavily you MAY go nuts. Although if you're chill and patient, maybe not. haha less
Pros
freedom, pick your own schedule, fun, satisfaction of helping people, most customers are great and very appreciative
Cons
glitchy and buggy app, poor help desk, some inflexibility, not true acknowledgement for good or fast service
Overall it’s an ok job but very inconsistent fighting for hours
Shopper / delivery/ Driver (Current Employee) – Toronto west, Mississauga, Oakville – 5 February 2018
I love working for this company but the hours are inconsistent because the way they have it set up we have beat other drivers to the hours we want and the areas we want to work. I enjoy meeting new people every day. I also try to help to the best of my knowledge.
Pros
We’re able to set our own hours
Cons
It’s very inconsistent.
Good work for moms
full service shopper (Current Employee) – GTA, ON – 9 January 2018
I was going to rate at 5 stars, but today I had unpleasant issue that I hadn't before. Usually my phone starts to beep when you have the order, but today Instacart send notification that I am out of zone and I have to drive to working zone location so I did. It took me half an hour to drive there and guess what? I had to seat in my car and wait for order to come for several hours! So I spend all my schedule in a car with NO orders! Now question: who is going to pay for my gas and parts for my car? Plus they didn't count half an hour that I was driving!!! In general there's more issues like:
- hard to find the right product, especially if it is ethnic product that you never seen before, but probably with the time you will get it.
- some app issues happens from time to time.
- sometimes you need to contact with help center urgently and there's no hot lines so you have to send a message and wait for couple days them to contact you back. So you going back and forth, back and forth...
- you have to work on time. If you are facing with difficult client who is taking your time by texting you back and forth because they are changing their mind regarding their order you will run out of time and your rating at Instacart will be lower so next time you won't be able to get more hours and so on.
- hard to find the right product, especially if it is ethnic product that you never seen before, but probably with the time you will get it.
- some app issues happens from time to time.
- sometimes you need to contact with help center urgently and there's no hot lines so you have to send a message and wait for couple days them to contact you back. So you going back and forth, back and forth...
- you have to work on time. If you are facing with difficult client who is taking your time by texting you back and forth because they are changing their mind regarding their order you will run out of time and your rating at Instacart will be lower so next time you won't be able to get more hours and so on.
Pros
flexible hours and easy to schedule.
Cons
poor or no tips, salary wish to be higher (they pay less than minimum wage), most of the times you have to carry heavy bags, sometimes it is hard to find the customers location, some places don't have parking or paid parking, gas and parts for your car on your own expences.
Great to hear you're enjoying the experience, and getting your steps in along the way!