Genuine human interactions are great 😄

I posted a few days ago about how my first day working for Instacart went. I've had a few more days to experience what it is like to be a personal grocery shopper for people around my city. I'm still enjoying it, but it isn't perfect.

I've had some pretty incredible things happen and then some not-so-cool instances. I've still yet to have something happen that I was unable to figure out, but there have been a few times when I was confused for a bit.

Today I wanted to discuss a few of the most interesting stories from this past week of doing Instacart orders. As of writing this, I've already done 20+ orders in total.

We will start with the GOOD and then move on to the BAD.

The Good 👍

There isn't much like making somebody else's day. Sometimes all it takes is a friendly face and a few kind words and I can tell that somebody was happy to meet me.

The following stories are about some of the best moments for me so far...

1. The luxury assisted-living woman

One thing I really love about Instacart is that it encourages me to venture out to new places. I have been driving around my city for 15 years now, but I've still not seen it all. This old woman's location was nearby to a place I had been to a lot, but I had no idea it even existed. It was a brand-new assisted living luxury apartment complex. I had so much fun exploring and noticing how good all of the people living there have it. This woman asked me to come inside and put her items on the kitchen counter. She didn't keep me long after that, but I could tell she was very happy to not only get her stuff but see another human being with a positive attitude.

2. The creamsicle lady

This was an old woman confined to a wheelchair. She lived deep out into the woods in some place I had never visited before. She asked me to carry her items inside and set them on the kitchen counter. Her place was nice and so was she. The lady had so many questions for me about how Instacart works, she talked to me for about 5 minutes. Before finally letting me go, she offered me an orange creamsicle frozen treat. I do love those things and I hated to tell her no, but I was in a hurry to drop off my next order so I told her no thank you. She understood and let me get on my way. I had a feeling I may have been the only person that she would see all day, perhaps even all week. It was sad, but I know that is how many elderly people spend the later years of their life.

3. The birdseed woman

It was pouring rain, but that didn't stop me from getting this person what they needed. Luckily she answered the front door and I was able to bring her stuff inside so it didn't get soaking wet like I was. I could tell she was a good cook by all of the items I got for her. Things like ingredients for homemade pumpkin pie and all sorts of other items. I had a friendly conversation with her, just general banter. She seemed happy and was very appreciative of my help. Sadly, she was NOT a good tipper. In fact, she left me $0, which sucks. I feel like I wasted my time with this one, but I still consider it positive just because she was so nice. I mean anybody that makes sure the birds living in the trees surrounding their house are fed must be a good person, right?

4. The wrong address woman

This girl actually called me and I talked to her on the phone while deciding what to replace one of her items with. She was driving and thought it was safer than texting, to which I agreed. This was my biggest order yet and it somehow all went smoothly, except for one thing. I wasted about 15 minutes of my time driving to 2nd Ave instead of 2nd Ave SW since her address was incorrect on the app. I told her she really needed to add that to her profile so that no other shoppers ever make the same mistake. She was very polite and even left me a $25 tip for my efforts. I really can't complain that I had to do a little extra driving because she paid me well for it.

The Bad 👎

Most of what I have experienced with Instacart has been positive, but not all. There was not been anything drastically terrible that happened, thank goodness. There have however been a few annoying or just slightly inconvenient things that occur. I've already forgiven that woman for the $0 tip, so she won't be included in the bad side of things.

The following stories are about some of the worst moments for me so far...

1. My Instacart debit card was declined

This one here scared me for a second, but it was a lesson I needed to learn. I replaced several of the requested items with alternatives that were in stock. Some were slightly more expensive that the original price, which the customer was okay with. When I went to finish the order, my Instacart debit card did not go through. I had to suspend my order and spend about 5 minutes on the phone with Instacart customer support. I went back to try it again after I finished talking to the girl on the phone and my card magically worked. It was stressful for a bit but ended up working out in the end. At least now I don't have to freak out if this ever happens again.

2. Do it all over again

This one was pretty unfortunate. There is this new cashier working at one of the local grocery stores. He is friendly and we even have conversations about NBA often since I am now seeing him every other day. I had a double order and finished with the first one, everything went smoothly. Then came the second order and I don't know what the boy did wrong, but it would not finalize. So after I had already bagged up all of the items and was ready to leave, I had to restart. I was forced to unload every single thing and let him scan them all over again and then somehow it just decided to work that time. I'm guessing he did something that confused the computer system, but I'm not quite sure what.

3. The muddy yard woman

This was also on a rainy day. It was the last order of the day for me and it had already gotten dark. The location was only a couple of blocks away from the store I shopped at, but it was so dark that I couldn't read any of the signs. My GPS kept telling me to turn down this alleyway, so I did and ended up parking in a very tight spot in a bunch of mud. To my dismay, I found out that I could have just parked right on the main road in front of the house and it would have all gone so much more smoothly. Lesson learned there. I did get my LeBron 11 "Hornets" muddy, but it was nothing I wasn't able to undo once I got back home. A little bit of water and a few paper towels solved that problem.

4. The forgotten pizzas

I honestly have no clue how I messed this one up, but it turned out to be a quick fix. I had two orders at once and successfully dropped off the first one. I was at the second house in the process of bringing all of their stuff up onto the covered front porch when I received a call from Instacart. A customer support rep was letting me know that I forgot 3 frozen pizzas at the previous house. Thank goodness I had them there with me still and didn't give them to the wrong people. I was able to drive back over to the original house and gave them what they were owed. They weren't mean, but also were not nice. I'm sure they probably thought I was an idiot, but I know I'm not. I guess I just somehow mixed up the one bag, although I made sure to keep things in separate parts of my car. I'll be more careful from now on.

5. The stinky crackerbox

This one grossed me out quite a bit. I had to deliver a trunk full of groceries to the East End. I hate that part of town, but there are some lovely old houses that are pretty huge and cool to drive by. Some of these houses are well-kept and others are straight-up nasty. Well, this one was very gross. An old woman and her son lived on the third floor of this old house. It was separated into three different apartments. I saw trash laying in the hallways, dirty bug traps, and mouse traps. That's all a clear sign that the place is filthy. I had to wait a few minutes for them to finally come to the door and when they did the son of the old woman asked me to carry the stuff upstairs for him. Yeah, he definitely looked like a lazy dude. When I got up the stairs, the place wreaked of cigarettes mixed with some other odd smell that was also foul. I wasn't in there for maybe 30 seconds, but when I got back in my car I felt incredibly dirty. I couldn't get the smell out of my nose for a few minutes and man did it make me happy that I'm not stuck living in a shithole like that.

That's all for now 🛒

I'm sure I'll have many more stories to tell in the future. I plan on doing Instacart 4-5 days a week for about 4-6 hours each time. It seems worth it to me so far and I'm already getting comfortable with how it all works. I'm hoping for more positive stories and fewer negative ones. You just never know what you are going to run into at the store or where you'll be delivering to. It's a bit of a gamble sometimes, but when it pays off it feels very rewarding.

Thanks for reading about some of my most interesting moments during my first week at Instacart. Look out for a post detailing my earnings after week one, which should be coming very soon.