Good for emergencies or holiday spending, not worth making full-time - Full Service Shopper Instacart Employee Review

2.0
Apr 21, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Immediate pay: If you have an unexpected or astronomical bill that needs paying off and your regular check won't cut it, this is GREAT for that. Most of the time will be spent in your car listening to your music.

Cons

Instacart itself pays crap. They nickel and dime the customers, so it LOOKS like all those surcharges and fees are for the delivery service, but it's not. It's to line Instacart's pockets. You will jump through hoops of fire before speaking to a live person in Care, and when you DO get to talk to an actual person, 9/10 times English isn't their first language. Every expense is on you. Gas, repairs, your lunch, the XL Sharpie you bought to mark bags with, ALL of it comes out of your pocket. Even the insulated bags they want you to have before starting. Unless you're okay with getting your butt handed to you during tax season, keep track of every single expense. That Sharpie, your lunch, the appropriate percentage of your phone bill and electric bill to CHARGE said phone, gas receipts, repair costs, the whole 9 - keep EVERY receipt, cause tax season will eat you alive. If you're in the boonies and they don't tip well, you're SOL my friend, unless you'd like to drive further out to where they DO tip. Accept the fact that this job WILL destroy your car. There's no getting around it.

Explore other reviews about Instacart

5.0
Mar 29, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great gig that can be done on flexible hours.

Cons

Gas prices having been go up.

2.0
Jun 21, 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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