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Shopping on someone else's dime 💸 👀

About 3 weeks ago I talked about why I would be starting Instacart. If you care for an explanation for why I'm now doing it, check out my previous article linked below.

^{How HIVE and other cryptocurrencies going down in price has affected me}

It took me a few weeks to get everything finalized, mostly due to a slow background check. I also was busy with family during the holidays and needed to wait until I had enough time to actually start working. I officially worked my first day on Monday and I truly enjoyed it.

If you are unaware of what Instacart is, let me briefly explain:

Instacart is an American retail company that operates a grocery delivery and pick-up service in the United States and Canada. The company offers its services via a website and mobile app. The service allows customers to order groceries from participating retailers with the shopping being done by a personal shopper. ^{^Source}

I personally would never hire somebody to go grocery shopping for me, I enjoy doing it myself. I do know that there is a large number of people who are more than happy to spend some extra money to save their valuable time and not waste it at the store. Lucky for somebody like me who enjoys grocery shopping, Instacrt exists.

After some research, it seems the app has received many updates since its initial launch. Waiting several years before giving something like this a chance has allowed me to avoid a lot of the annoying inconveniences doing this probably once had. Now things are just so smooth. Let me tell you more about how my first day with Instacart went.

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My 1st day 🛍️ 🛒

The Instacart shopper app is extremely user-friendly. If you imagine something like this to be difficult, trust me when I say it is very easy. Once you're set up and ready to go, it'll walk you threw a very short tutorial showing you how everything works.

To start, you can swipe to go online or offline at any time. This means you can make your own schedule and work as little or as much as you prefer.

You get to choose the orders you will take and if you are quick you can get the higher-paying ones. It always shows you your estimated earnings for each batch. Keep in mind that orders are known as batches within Instacart.

The map shows all of the available stores in your local area that support Instacart. As long as you are nearby and online, you will get a notification anytime a new batch comes up. You'd be wise to accept any order that seems reasonable to you because there are usually other shoppers waiting to do the same.

Once you arrive at the store, you can begin shopping. You will be presented with a list of items which are organized by where they will be located in the store. You will have to scan the barcode of most items to confirm you have the right thing.

Some stores give even more details about where to look. You could be given the exact aisle and shelf you need to look on. So far, it has been extremely accurate for me. Even though it was my first day, I completed all of my orders swiftly.

Sometimes you may not be able to find an item. If you ask a store associate for help maybe that'll solve the problem. Sometimes items are out of stock though, but luckily once again the app makes that an easy issue to remedy. You can easily chat with your customer at any time. You will have the option to remove an item from the order or to replace it with something similar.

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If something goes wrong, you can always contact support. I haven't had to do that yet and I hope that I never do. Customers have been friendly and usually respond quickly if you have a question for them. I did have one person that didn't answer me, so I just did what I thought was best for their order.

You do not have to pay for these items with your own money. There are two ways I've seen it work out so far. You usually use the company-issued Instacart debit card to pay for everything. Sometimes though you will get one where somebody paid online and all you have the cashier do is scan a barcode at the beginning of the order.

After you finish shopping and start loading up your car with the groceries, you also will want to upload a picture of the receipt so the customer has it. You will be the one keeping the physical receipt.

Be sure to wait to begin your delivery until you are actually ready to drive away from the store. It gives you a reasonable amount of time to get to your customer, but you don't want to start the clock earlier than you have to.

You will get their address and sometimes directions on where they want the groceries. Everybody so far has just wanted me to leave their stuff at the door, but I would happily carry their items inside if they ever needed me to do so.

I worked for just under four hours on my first day. A decent portion of this time was spent waiting on a new order to pop up. I'd say about 20-30 minutes of my time was spent just chilling in my car. It sure beats working at a job where you have somebody trying to tell you what to do though.

In the time that I worked yesterday, I completed a total of four batches. That's basically one batch per hour. Each paid differently as it depends on the number of items and how much the customer decides to tip.

I made around $55 yesterday in four hours. That's roughly $13.75/hr. Not great, but also more than minimum wage here where I live. I have a feeling I can up that hourly rate the longer I do it. I will get quicker at navigating the stores, know which orders are actually worth taking, and hopefully have some good reviews that encourage my customers to leave me some bigger tips.

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I'm officially emplyed by Instacart 🤑

I am so thankful that I have Instacart to rely on while these crypto markets continue to figure themselves out. This kind of work leaves me with plenty of time to do the things I love still. I'm not forced to work 8-9 hour days with little to no breaks. I will literally never go back to a regular 9-5 because I feel that they are designed to break us as human beings and make our lives miserable.

For now, my plan is to work about 4 or 5 days a week. I am still getting up early and heading straight to the gym. I then come home and cook a good meal. After that is when I write my daily blog for Hive and curate content. Once I finish (like I'm about to do right now) it is time to start Instacart work. I plan to get home just after it gets dark each evening, which leaves me 4-5 hours to cook dinner, take a shower, and relax with some video games or NBA action.

I will be sure to update once I have more experience being an Instacart shopper. I look forward to my first day of making more money than my previous line of work ever provided.

Let me know if you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer anything.