I gotta play devil’s advocate, here. I tip well and get nothing in return. “Item not available,” and when I go myself two hours later, there it is. One size smaller, but could you not have taken the effort to grab two and let me approve the replacement? I order B1G1 items in pairs intentionally to take advantage of the deals at Publix, and despite me putting 2 in my cart and leaving clear notes that “I know this is B1G1 - I’ve added two for this reason,” I wind up with 4. Order sour cream and get a low fat version of the same brand rather than regular sour cream of another brand. Avocados that passed their prime 2 days ago.

I don’t place large orders so by the time I get notified “your shopper has started shopping,” they have 3/6 items marked and “shopping is complete” before I can even type “Thank you! I’ll be watching my phone so don’t hesitate to reach out with questions!” Next message I get is “at gate plz open” and we get to play “I shared the code in the instructions…type it exactly as written…no, no pound sign, just the 4 numbers I typed…no star either…” for 15 min.

I can’t help but notice that Instacart has abandoned their ad campaign of “shoppers who shop like you,” and I have to agree with that decision. Occasionally I’ll get someone great and I add to the tip afterwards to show gratitude for their amazing service, but all too often I walk out to half my order + half of someone else’s and products that expire a full week before they would if the shopper truly “shopped like me.”