Why I Quit Instacart

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Within the last few months, my local grocery chain (Publix), announced that they're offering a Publix Delivery service, powered by Instacart. I've been looking for a second job with a flexible schedule so I signed up thinking I could just do it on the weekends. I signed up, got accepted, and immediately realized it wasn't going to work for me. More after the jump.


Early Access Hurts People Starting Out

After signing up, getting the shopper app, and picking up my Instacart debit card, I was finally ready to "pick up hours." I look to see that there are 0 hours available in that current week, or the following week. I see that the week goes Sun-Sat, so I waited until Sunday to check again. After checking repeatedly throughout the morning (I'm on eastern time) and into the early afternoon, I finally see the next next-week show up in the app. All hours are taken except some mid-day Wednesday. I watched the availability in my area for a bit over a month and only once did I see ANY weekend hours available. 

I was disappointed. I work a full-time job and wanted to pickup something flexible on the weekends. I'm not going to take time off at work where I make more than I would delivering groceries. I could see if someone was unemployed or had random weekdays available but it's frustrating.

In conclusion, I've deleted my account, uninstalled the app from my phone and am looking at other opportunities. As I've written in another post, I've tried getting started with side work on a variety of other platforms, and I think I'm done trying to put in hours in someone else's system. I'd rather build something of my own. 

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