Shopper - Anonymous employee Instacart Employee Review

4.0
Oct 2, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Flexible hours, easy/quick money, relaxed, pay is very reasonable, and fun!

Cons

Customer service is not that friendly and you can’t choose which store to go to if there are more than one of a store (ex: if the customer orders from ShopRite but the one they assign you to is further than the one that’s closer to you/on the way to the customer, you can’t change or choose to go to a closer location unless you call support), penalized (reliability incidents) if you cancel your hours within 6 hrs of the beginning of your shift, some driving distances can be far, app does not correspond with the stock qty of the store (sometimes you have to give the customer a refund if the store doesn’t carry an item or if there’re out of stock).

Explore other reviews about Instacart

5.0
Mar 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Batch pay and promotions are top notch, especially here in Olney. I've worked in St. Louis, MO, Sparta, IL, Carbondale, IL and Mount Vernon, IL. My favorite has been Olney. I won't reach Diamond status like I did in St. Louis, but the rewards are better in the smaller communities. Instacart cares about their drivers.

Cons

Batch pay could be better.

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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