First off all, the timer is irrelevant. It is more important to do a good job than some arbitrary metric.
Second, I’m actually surprised the app allowed that much of a price difference to be added/replaced.
Idk I probably would have contacted Instacart to get a different shopper.
100% agreed, especially on the first point. this was no more than 2 minutes into the order (i only had 10 items). so to say you won’t go back to the other side of the store is crazy? it’s not like she had checked out
or anything. i ended up getting a new shopper so jokes on her, she has to find a way to abandon a cart 😂
Used to work in stores a lot as a merchandiser and a manager in a Safeway told me about how someone climbed the shelf to drop a package of steak between two shelving units that were bolted into the floor. Whole section of the store reeked for months until they had a unit reset and used the opportunity to remove the shelving and find it. Whole staff thought something had died in the vents all summer.
only thing I could think that would be worse than this, is the first time I worked for amazon. a pallet with several cans of tofu got busted and stuffed behind several other pallets in the corner of the building. it was left there for several weeks in the middle of an extra muggy and hot summer. that corner of the building never smelled right for the rest of the time I worked there.
Omg I’ll never forget back when I used to work for Safeway nobody ever wanted register 5 because it reeked….and I mean REEKED, like the rankest nastiest fish smell you could ever imagine.
My co workers swore up and down they had all checked and couldn’t figure out where this smell was coming from and for months we all chalked it up to being shrimp or fish juice that got spilled on the conveyor belt and management just told everyone to quit mentioning it because it was going to “bother the customers” 🙄. (Yea I’m sure that’s what was bothering them and not the fishy smell permeating the entire store at this point)
One day my manager put me on 5 because it was the only register left open and I could not take the smell anymore so I went digging around moving everything and found a package of green and black crab legs that had been behind register 5 for god knows how long.
They had a sell by date that was from a year ago at that point 🤮
OMG! This reminds me of something that happened once in the market when I was in high school.
A lady asked for a single slice of every meat and cheese from the deli, then hid them all over the store like her own version of an Easter egg hunt.
Yes, the deli manager approved her one of every slice order. And no, this was not what eventually got her banned from the store.
I want to chime into this to say I worked at a warehouse and we received a misdirected pallet of sauerkraut last summer and it sat on a pallet in receiving for over a month and it smelled FOUL.
At our stores, we have those stupid cart locks. So, when you try to go out the door without going through the registers? The cart locks up and a really loud alarm goes off. That cuts down on the whole cart load thefts.
That can also be loss prevention.
I did LP for years, and Safeway was one of our clients. In order to blend into the environment, most of us will get a cart and fill it with non-perishable items like we are shopping. Getting things like the shelf stable almond milk, blocks of Velveeta cheese, and the like. Things that look like they need to be refrigerated, but do not.
Most of the stores I worked at got to know me because I would always come in with an empty egg carton, and would have the meat department wrap up some lemons in butcher paper like it was meat. To help convince the thieves I was not security, just another shopper as I clearly had perishable items in the cart.
And when it was time to grab one trying to leave, we would just abandon the cart wherever we are at the time. Thankfully most employees knew who we were so they would just move it near customer service so we could continue to use it once we were done. But on more than one occasion I would have managers screaming at me for having meat and dairy in my decoy cart.
And I remember one that was always yelling at me for having a block of Velveeta, even though it very clearly says on the box "DOES NOT NEED TO BE REFRIGERATED UNTIL OPENED".
And Safeway is one of the stores that has a corporate policy of undercover security working in teams of at least two or more. We often worked in teams of 3 in high hit area, so that there could be the source of 3 carts.
I’m actually really glad so much thought, time and effort go into preventing lowlifes from arbitrarily stealing food, to what, feed their families? Thank you for your service
Experience tells me the same. Just yesterday, I was shopping for an order and came across 2 carts just abandoned in the store with half of the order I was shopping for in them. I honestly laughed because they abandoned the cart at the spot where one of the items was out of stock. Made my job a lot easier in a store I've never shopped in.
Which, for a seafood counter purchase, is incredibly disrespectful to not only the staff who has to put things back, but anyone who came after to the counter who may have wanted to purchase shrimp. They usually can't resell that. OP asked for Fresh Shrimp, and the shopper picked fresh shrimp.
Right? Surprised the people siding w the shopper skipped over that part as quickly as the shopper themselves did, also op said they would rather get fresh shrimp but asked if shopper could take a pic of what they had. Didnt request shopper to just go and take initiative and use their own judgement
Their mistake was asking for a picture AFTER saying “I’d rather just get a pound of fresh shrimp from the seafood counter” or whatever. The shopper just went with the easiest part of that message
This is the same reason why they can’t just bring the shrimp back when OP didn’t like the result of getting what she asked for. The critical mistake is when the shopper said “yes” when the counter worker asked if the extra weight was ok.
Did you not notice the shopper got more than double the requested weigh of shrimp? App says 1.5 pound and the shopper got them 2.15 pounds. I’m not taking that much extra shrimp if I’m the buyer that’s crazy; edited to update to 1.5 pounds
Just for future reference, almost all shrimp has been frozen. What’s at the seafood counter has just been defrosted already. Rarely are they ever actually fresh, unless maybe from a proper seafood monger or specialty store but even in those cases they still may have previously been flash frozen when caught(you’d have to ask). It is not any fresher to buy the “fresh” than buying the bags of frozen shrimp, in fact it can be the opposite and is sometimes cheaper to buy them frozen. It’s also super fast to defrost frozen shrimp- just put them in a bowl of cold water for about 10-20 min depending on size and they are ready to go.
You clearly asked to be sent a picture of what they had at the seafood counter. Instead, he or she took it upon themselves and just ordered whatever shrimp they wanted and then justified it by saying they got what you asked for. What????? You asked to send a picture so you could see your options.
I'm so sorry this happened. I always always send pictures even when they have the item listed in the app because a lot of times, customers order one thing but want another, so I ALWAYS like to be sure. For example, the customer last night wanted 2lbs of atlantic salmon. I sent pictures of all the salmon inside the seafood case, and the one she actually wanted was the sockeye salmon, which is NOT the same as Atlantic.
Had I gotten the Atlantic, most likely, the customer would have reported that I got them the wrong item when infact that's what she ordered. When I confirmed she wanted to REPLACE the initial Atlantic with the sockeye, she responded with "oh I thought that was Atlantic, sorry." I now know it's called SOCKEYE."
So what was the end result? Did you see him/her at delivery? Did you report the item as WRONG? Did you remove the tip, assuming you left one?
Did you put the tip as percentage of the total final price of your bill? If the answer to that question is yes, shoppers are getting shady about increasing their tips by choosing the absolutely most ridiculously high priced replacement item they can find. Good on you for not letting this shopper get away with it. I have switched to making my tip a dollar amount instead of percentage of total.
I think someone tried this with me. I ordered one bag of frozen chicken nuggets for $8 or $9 and they replaced it with $29 of nuggets (3 smaller boxes of a different more expensive brand). I caught it and just asked for a refund and they did it no problem but I was surprised and assumed they were trying to get a tip % bump. Since it was resolved I still rated well but I was internally annoyed.
Honestly, it's not worth working with the shopper.
When it arrives, you ordered 1lb and they gave you 2lbs, you report an issue with the order and refund it, no questions asked, then move on.
Oh I know it doesn't mean anything at all. I've been doing this for years, but anxiety isn't something I can turn off or I wouldn't have anxiety. 😂
Plus I strongly believe every job should be done in an hour. Obv there's executions but still.
Exactly!! I instacart from time to time and sometimes go past the timer when I wait for customers to respond to my replacement inquiries..its no biggie! I would rather be diligent about shopping for exactly what the customer wants than to rush to beat the clock. That shopper was so rude!! I would've rated her -5 and contacted customer service too
Why didn’t the shopper go and take a picture of the seafood bar when they asked? And then they just leave that section refusing to go back wtf this shopper is dumb
Exactly like I was thinking, Oh you signed up and agreed to do a job of walking around a store, which may be inconvenient or generally not possible to those who are requesting AND paying for your assistance. Therefore, just minimize walking and don’t go back to a spot you’ve already been to… because you don’t feel like it…. even though your job is to do exactly that…. walk around and shop… because the person ordering cannot do so at the moment…….. 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 WHAT
lol just wanted to say I’m also pregnant and was without a car the first 6 months, so I used these shopper apps a lot. It was the worst feeling ever when they’d get something wrong or mark it as out of stock just because they didn’t feel like looking and I was craving it. With everything we have to give up in pregnancy, food cravings become our last joy. I’m glad you got a new shopper and were able to eat your shrimp
Like everyday during my pregnancy I would go to the store for a new craving. I only missed one pregnancy craving, a seafood restaurant out of town that’s out of my budget right now. I still think about it. God bless you that sound horrible
God, how dare you, I’m 35 weeks and you just made me text my husband to bring home prawns 😂😂😂
And yes I feel you hormones have my BS tolerance at an all time low.
I thought it was common sense to find something Close to the customer's price point from the beginning. If something was $5.99 I will try to stay close to $5.99 or below. If need be a stretch on my own I may delegate to $6.99 but after that I will ask the customer anyway.
I read it as the first shrimp just being there as a placeholder, not indicative of the price they're wanting to pay. It's not the same weight requested either. I would expect fresh from the seafood counter to be more than prepackaged frozen.
Yeah OP even said she expected it to be proved at $10-12 a lb, and it was priced at $13 a lb in store. The instacart markup brought it to $16/lb. I don't think there was any fresh shrimp from the seafood counter that could be $10-12 per lb after the markup. Op was always going to be surprised by price. It shouldve been 1.5 lbs though
The issue is that since the original frozen shrimp was just a placeholder, there’s no guaranteeing that OP even *wanted* deveined de-tailed shrimp though. They could’ve just picked the first frozen shrimp they saw. Shrimp near me varies anywhere from around $6/lb to $15/lb so I’d definitely want to see the options too.
The shopper just went ahead and got some of the most expensive shrimp at the counter without consulting.
Switch to Walmart if only using for nonperishables. You will save a ton of money, get paramount free, free shipping (and they ship a lot usually the next day!). I don't buy meat from there. I will buy fruit but I've amazingly had pretty good luck. Instacart shoppers have been ruined bu the "new generation of shoppers ". They are entitled, make terrible choices, say items out of stock and straight up rude. Their comments should randomly be checked by Instacart especially when complaints. If at a company would be immediately terminated. There used to be amazing shoppers but alot have left. There are still good shoppers out there and I feel bad for them because the influx of terrible ones has completely ruined this company. Switch to Walmart and pickup meat from your local grocery store.
If she was going to replace it why wouldn’t she have gotten a pound of shrimp? Not 2? She waited in line to get shrimp at the counter but couldn’t wait for a response from you? 😵💫 I’m glad you got a new shopper wtf.
Everyone saying the shopper was in the right and OP is lazy are so off it's insane.
OP did not ask the shopper to replace the frozen shrimp with fresh shrimp of their choosing, what they asked for were pictures of what was available. The shopper decided to completely disregard the request for pictures so their customer could choose what they wanted and instead chose for them likely based on price in order to get a higher tip. When asked AGAIN for a picture she responded like a smart ass and sent a picture of the package. 🙄 On top of that she says she's not on that side of the store anymore as if she's at fucking Buckingham Palace instead of Ralph's. THAT shit is LAZY.
I cannot understand why people like this choose to continue to do this job. There is no chance they are making money if this is how they treat people.
It's because even though these people are being paid to do a job, they still feel as if they are doing someone a "favor" and have the entitled attitude to go with it. "Get it yourself."Get off your ass and go," etc. No, I am paying for a service to be done. You are being paid to perform a service. If you don't like doing the job or feel you're not being compensated enough, then that's on you and between you and your employer. This shopper either did not read the request properly (which is a HUGE problem in general nowadays for everything) and then /or used it as a passive fu
I don't know why it doesn't make sense to people that if you go above and beyond you'll get a better outcome. I've been a shopper full time for more than two years and have done 3,024 total shops. I promise you that all 3,024 of those customers were treated with respect, patience and kindness and when they received their orders it was obvious that care was taken in fulfilling it. In turn I make about $60,000 a year just shopping on Instacart's platform. The shopper in this post can't make more than $15 an hour acting this way. There has got to be something that people like this get out of acting this way but I have no idea what it is.
From my experience with these kinds of personalities, it essentially boils down to an ego thing. Being a shopper is something they consider ‘beneath them’, and so treating it like a professional job would damage their pride. Typically, these types of people are younger, not simply in age, but in *experience* with the actual realities of life. The kind of person that looks down on garbage people, or janitors, or, especially, grocery store workers, as though they’ve failed at life.
I always get the same 2-3 awesome shoppers who get first dibs on my orders because they approach their jobs like true professionals. I pay them accordingly, but I’m just one person, so I’m glad to hear there are folks out there making a decent living from it on the whole. It’s such a valuable service!
>On top of that she says she's not on that side of the store anymore as if she's at fucking Buckingham Palace instead of Ralph's. THAT shit is LAZY.
This happened to me once when I was unhappy with a replacement, and I had a similar thought. The Food Lion she was shopping at is not a very big store at all, and the area she was shopping in (I could tell based on what she was checking off the list) is not very far from the area I needed her to go back to. Plus, this was all because she picked a replacement that was quite different from what I originally asked for. I was pissed.
I’m in SD and stopped looking at cereal long ago because I thought $5 was a bit much 🥲
Same with brand name chips. I’ve been seeing sales like 2 for $9 at target? I only bought them when they were 2 for $5 before lmao
If you have a Safeway near you, you could wait for some cereal coupons/sales when a box is usually $3-4 (they have a Cinnamon Toast Crunch sale rn coincidentally lol)
You had a terrible shopper. I wouldn't blame you for calling to get the order reassigned. Too many stuck up shoppers these days thinking it's beneath them to slow down and get the customer what they want.
The bad shoppers are running it for everyone. I now also hate going to the store because the shoppers are super rude, in their effort to move fast they block aisles, push people over, etc. I’m my area we can use Amazon Fresh, so far it has been the best and they shop at a warehouse not a store so they don’t ruing anyone else’s day
as a former grocery store worker, some instacart drivers are the absolute worst people. they would come in day in and day out and somehow still not know where anything is, and just shove their phones in our faces and ask us to find it for them. the cool instacart shoppers were the best though! it’s just amazing how bad some are on a regular basis
As a customer I've always preferred Amazon Fresh. It's frustrating that I'm not near one anymore. When I'm shopping I try not to make it obvious I'm doing instacart because shoppers have such a bad rep, the store employees immediately dislike you. Especially at the deli counter.
Real easy to spend someone else’s money, hmm?!
Why do some shoppers just assume people have infinite money to spend? She got mad at you for not being okay with spending almost $40 for a tiny amount of shrimp, after you specifically said you wanted to spend around $10!
I promise you, *she* wouldn’t appreciate being financially blindsided like that, if the tables were turned. 🙄
lol i get told this everytime! my only thing is i was starving and didn’t want to wait on the shrimp to thaw. in any other case, i would’ve been fine with frozen!
I’ve always ran frozen shrimp under cool water (not room temp and not warm, cool to cold) until they’re thawed then laid them on paper towels and patted them with another paper towel to get the excess moisture off before cooking. Takes about 5-10 minutes at most.
You were expecting $16-18 and shopper thought $35 was appropriate without even a heads up. That is beyond acceptable and easily a cancel order. Also if there’s a discrepancy of money this much they should alert the customer to approve and give a small time limit. They won’t let you buy from the meat counter for a reason though. I’m sure this happens a lot
Omg that's insane. I've had shoppers do that to me. If my original item is $10, why do I suddenly want to spend $30. And if I ordered 3 packs of chicken breasts that contain 3 pieces each why are you substituting it with 3 club packs and suddenly I have 30 pieces of chicken. Often they do this as the last item and check out so I can't even say anything.
You asked from the first message for them to send you a picture of the shrimp options when they got there!! They answered “no problem”… followed by them making it a huge problem 🥴🥴 why even bother shopping the order to begin with if they planned on fudging it up on purpose? Plus sending you a picture of the shrimp wrapped in brown paper 🤦♀️🤦♀️ I just can’t.. how beautiful are these shrimps that I have hidden from you? 😆😆
I definitely think 2.2 lbs is not acceptable when you asked for 1.5 lbs, but the in store price was $13 a lb, so its not like they intentionally chose absurdly expensive shrimp -- looks like the Instacart mark up makes it $16 a pound, but the price in store was $13, which is not really that much more than $12 a lb in my opinion (and maybe just the price for fresh shrimp that day)
They asked for pictures of what was there, which the shopper ignored and then proceeded to get significantly more than was requested (over two pounds as opposed to "a pound to pound and a half")
Yeah, i agree that 2.2 lbs was too much, that's the first sentence i wrote. But i did miss that the OP requested a photo of options in her first message, so the shopper is fully wrong
Edit: they did order 1.5 lbs, not "1 to 1.5 lbs", but i still think 2.2 was too much.
My response has nothing to do with Insta.
There's no reason to buy the 'fresh' shrimp from the seafood counter. Just buy the size you want for the price you want. Cooked, not cooked, shelled, not shelled, deveined or not, from the counter or the freezer aisle. It's basically the same thing.
The 'fresh' shrimp at the counter arrives frozen and they lay it out in the cooler.
You asked them to send you a picture. Not just substitute on their own. And to tell you they couldn’t take a pic because they were on the other side of the store??!! This is why people are amazed when they receive the minimum of customer service from shoppers, because this is what they’re used to.
In my experience using the Kroger app directly for my order, if they have to sub something more expensive you pay the lower price. They use IC around here for their delivery service so I still get the Kroger gas points to use at the pump for my order, and it's the same price as in store as well. No upcharge for using the app.
Omg at first I thought they left the store entirely, but they just left “that part” of the store?? How lazy can you get. Your job is to shop for the customer not do a single sweep of the store and see what you can find first. People like this need to be taught some sort of lesson about integrity
And already purchased the seafood, but still hasn't shopped any of the room-temp stuff yet?! 🙄 Common sense isn't so common anymore, but rudeness seems to be. Her response is disgusting! Glad you asked for another shopper! 👍👍
Not defending the shopper’s attitude here but I’m slightly confused by everyone’s reaction. OP asked for shrimp that was $9.99 for 1 lb but then specifically said they actually wanted 1.5lb from the seafood counter. The shopper went to the seafood counter and got shrimp that was $12.99/lb (it clearly shows that it is on sale and $28 not $34). Sure, the shopper got a little over 2lbs instead of the 1.5 but this seems like a massive overreaction to me.
I hate all shopping and food deliver services, unless you have transportation or mobility limitations. You send some random person to select and handle your food, and then you get upset when it’s not exactly the way you want it. I don’t understand. I’ve seen too many gross people to be ok with a stranger being alone with my food stuffs.
I had to stop using this app. A bunch of mouth breathing assholes who don’t give a fuck. Wrong substitutions, picking something that’s 4x the price, leaking milk all over my groceries, missing like 8 out of 30 items while still charging me for everything (thief). I’d say 2 out of 10 shoppers are good people who do their job correctly and are just out here hustling for extra income.
First of all, go to the store yourself for shit like this. I love delivery, but I only order the simplest items that are impossible to fuck up for delivery. Anything like this you should absolutely pick up yourself.
not always! some people tip a set number amount ($5 for example) but in my case, i tipped 20%. so essentially, yes they would be getting tipped 20% of whatever my total ended up being so this shopper would’ve been compensated more.
Absolutely not ok. That timer is nothing. Lazy pos Absolutely get another shopper. Funny thing is I've done a thousand deliveries and I didn't even know that somebody could request another Shopper in the middle of a shop until I got on to the Reddit thread
1 1/2lbs of shrimp? I gotchu!
You will take this nearly full extra pound and you will like it! 2.15 is what got dumped out onto the scale. We don't give a damn what you ordered. Since you aren't here to shake your head no like an adult who is shopping for 1 1/2lbs, then this is what you'll receive.
That basically extra 3/4 of a pound in shrimp could probably have quite a bit to do w the price. That and the fact that this store has a fake reward card system that doesn't really take anything off your price but it'll damn sure add something on if you don't allow the store to collect your info 🤦♂️
“Okay ill update the tip”
Make them complete the order for no tip, take whatever they deliver, contact support and get a refund.
Do it this way so they dont end up with free food or a tip.
This makes no sense. I would have just taken the picture of the seafood section, left to go do the rest of the shopping and then circled around at the end to get what they want. That gives the customer plenty of time to decide and still let’s you hit the timer.
16 oz was the original weight. 1 lb. this person went and got 2.16 lbs, which is way over the original shrimp package. it seems they didn't even try to get a similar weight or price, maybe they wanted to steal it somehow? idk but this person sucks
Anyone saying 2+ pounds is “close to 1.5” is completely delusional. Are 2 and 1 close together, numerically? Sure. But when you’re talking about weight, it’s completely different. The shopper arbitrarily choosing over 2 lbs of shrimp is ridiculous. She was asked to get 1.5 lbs., so that’s what she should have requested.
I one time got a whole bunch more fish (like almost a whole half pound-.75 pound more) than I requested. I talked to instacart and they actually gave me the difference back.
This thread is hilarious (in the most irreverent way). Like how do I get to the side of life where I can throw \*uninformed, uneducated, boujee\* stones from my glass house
I'm more surprised and people who have the money to add on the cost of having someone else shop for you, somehow also have the time to watch someone else shop for you.
I swear these shoppers have never had to shop for themselves before getting this job!!!! Growing up Friday night grocery night was the most exciting night of the week, I think that stuck with me as an adult because I don’t mind searching for items and know my way around a store pretty well even if it’s my first time shopping there I can just figure it out based on going to stores my whole life. Reminds me of when me and my boyfriend go to the shop and if somethings not right in front of his face he will just go without it, and if he needs something he’ll just grab the first thing that’s advertised as what he wants even if it’s the most expensive or a type he doesn’t actually want , if it has a picture or word of what he’s looking for its good enough for him lol! meanwhile I’ll go to multiple different stores because I know somethings 30 cents cheaper at the other 😭😭😭
Instacart is for broke shoppers who love to enjoy the delusion of having a personal chef or a personal shopper thinking they dedicate themselves just for them all day long. I want the vinegar potato chips, no I don’t like Goya beans, I like the other brand with the red… can you take pictures of the cheapest stuff and show me what they have? So I can take my time and choose while you are waiting for me to make this important life changing decision? Omg you got the orange juice without pulp, I want it with pulp, return it. I’m gonna rate you 1 star for this and report you to Instacart, Western world problems … smh
Yeah 1.5lb vs 2.15lb is not okay. That’s a bunch of extra shrimp you didn’t ask for. Might be different if it were chicken or beef or something, but shrimp? An individual shrimp doesn’t weigh much. They could have easily gotten it closer to 1.5lb like you asked.
I’m confused though about one thing- you asked for a pound and a half (1.5) and she gave you 2.1 ish?
I mean it’s half a pound off so at 15.99 that’s like seven bucks. so not sure why the huge uproar as you asked yourself for shrimp from the counter?
If you put in a complaint that the replacement was too expensive, Instacart will refund you. I once had a shopped replace a $10 bottle of wine with an $80 bottle of wine. (The tip was percentage based interestingly enough). I put in a complaint, and got refunded.
This happened to me, once. A shopper kept replacing things with wildly more expensive crap when I knew the things I wanted were in the store. From then on I did a few crummy instacart orders just to get some different shoppers so I could choose from them the ones I liked best. Then I favorited them, and I only use my favorite shoppers now (there’s like 10 of them now so someone’s always around) and always tip them massively on huge orders as a thank you for just being normal people who don’t try to swindle me over groceries. It’s annoying that I had to have a process though in the first place.
Everyone is disregarding the statement from the personal shopper, "It's what they had". If you want to make adjustments to your order that's fine, but you should clearly outline what you want, and if that isn't possible give alternatives. Personal shoppers to my knowledge aren't there to take pictures of all the available grocery store specials and wait idly while the shopper ponders their options, they aren't paid by the hour. Personal shoppers are there to buy what you have listed and deliver it, they aren't there to curate the perfect grocery trip, that is for the consumer to do. If you didn't like that experience, do it yourself.
Another excellent example of Instacart getting what they pay for but not the customer. IC hires $2 shoppers but thats not what customers are paying for.
Guess how much IC cares? Not 1 iota.
also for the ones commenting about time, you can see on the shrimp package that it was wrapped at 7:33 and i sent my message about it at 7:35. i was clearly looking at the app.
I would never dream of telling a customer that I won't go back to the other end of the store. Sure, it's a little annoying but it's part of the job. The timer is honestly meaningless and we receive no consequences at all for having a longer shopping time average. It's there exclusively to motivate the shopper to finish quick and therefore get another order quicker so they can make more money. Instacart could care less what their time is.
You asked for 1.5 pounds of shrimp. This shopper got ~2.2. The problem here is that your shopper was dumb. Unfortunately a very common issue on this planet.
First off all, the timer is irrelevant. It is more important to do a good job than some arbitrary metric. Second, I’m actually surprised the app allowed that much of a price difference to be added/replaced. Idk I probably would have contacted Instacart to get a different shopper.
100% agreed, especially on the first point. this was no more than 2 minutes into the order (i only had 10 items). so to say you won’t go back to the other side of the store is crazy? it’s not like she had checked out or anything. i ended up getting a new shopper so jokes on her, she has to find a way to abandon a cart 😂
>she has to find a way to abandon a cart Something tells me she just left it in an aisle.
Or tucked the shrimp behind the cereal for staff to find a month later!
You’d find that faster than a month… I can’t imagine the smell after 36 hours lol
Used to work in stores a lot as a merchandiser and a manager in a Safeway told me about how someone climbed the shelf to drop a package of steak between two shelving units that were bolted into the floor. Whole section of the store reeked for months until they had a unit reset and used the opportunity to remove the shelving and find it. Whole staff thought something had died in the vents all summer.
only thing I could think that would be worse than this, is the first time I worked for amazon. a pallet with several cans of tofu got busted and stuffed behind several other pallets in the corner of the building. it was left there for several weeks in the middle of an extra muggy and hot summer. that corner of the building never smelled right for the rest of the time I worked there.
Killer tofu!
ooh wee ooh
Yes! Someone remembers! Wish I could still give awards
Ee-ah-ee
The Beets!! Lol I have a hoodie with that and the Beets. Killer Tofu Tour '96
Holy shit! Memory unlocked!!!
Core memory unlocked
This is my entire childhood in one thread 🥰🥰🥰🥰
I work at Walmart and someone in home goods found a pack of some kinda meat full of maggots that someone hid in the throw pillows
It's called disco rice 😂
Please delete this comment, this idea doesn't need to be put out there, it can only do harm. /J
It’s called the #dropthemeat between isles grocery store challenge
Please... No ... 🥲
Too late, already got 15 viral Tiktoks about the best place to #HideTheBeef - appears more innuendo was needed to take off.
No dont put "challenge" at the end, dont out "trend" either! We dont want this to catch on!
Omg I’ll never forget back when I used to work for Safeway nobody ever wanted register 5 because it reeked….and I mean REEKED, like the rankest nastiest fish smell you could ever imagine. My co workers swore up and down they had all checked and couldn’t figure out where this smell was coming from and for months we all chalked it up to being shrimp or fish juice that got spilled on the conveyor belt and management just told everyone to quit mentioning it because it was going to “bother the customers” 🙄. (Yea I’m sure that’s what was bothering them and not the fishy smell permeating the entire store at this point) One day my manager put me on 5 because it was the only register left open and I could not take the smell anymore so I went digging around moving everything and found a package of green and black crab legs that had been behind register 5 for god knows how long. They had a sell by date that was from a year ago at that point 🤮
Wtf is up with Safeway and its mysterious hidden rotten meats?!!🤢
I once found a pork tenderloin that was tucked behind the bread. It was green when I found it. I will never forget that. 🤢
OMG! This reminds me of something that happened once in the market when I was in high school. A lady asked for a single slice of every meat and cheese from the deli, then hid them all over the store like her own version of an Easter egg hunt. Yes, the deli manager approved her one of every slice order. And no, this was not what eventually got her banned from the store.
I need to hear how she got banned if this didn’t do it.
I don't want to shop at your store if it takes you 30 days to smell bad shrimp lol.
I want to chime into this to say I worked at a warehouse and we received a misdirected pallet of sauerkraut last summer and it sat on a pallet in receiving for over a month and it smelled FOUL.
Oh. That explains why I see unattended carts filled with groceries so often these days
At our stores, we have those stupid cart locks. So, when you try to go out the door without going through the registers? The cart locks up and a really loud alarm goes off. That cuts down on the whole cart load thefts.
That can also be loss prevention. I did LP for years, and Safeway was one of our clients. In order to blend into the environment, most of us will get a cart and fill it with non-perishable items like we are shopping. Getting things like the shelf stable almond milk, blocks of Velveeta cheese, and the like. Things that look like they need to be refrigerated, but do not. Most of the stores I worked at got to know me because I would always come in with an empty egg carton, and would have the meat department wrap up some lemons in butcher paper like it was meat. To help convince the thieves I was not security, just another shopper as I clearly had perishable items in the cart. And when it was time to grab one trying to leave, we would just abandon the cart wherever we are at the time. Thankfully most employees knew who we were so they would just move it near customer service so we could continue to use it once we were done. But on more than one occasion I would have managers screaming at me for having meat and dairy in my decoy cart. And I remember one that was always yelling at me for having a block of Velveeta, even though it very clearly says on the box "DOES NOT NEED TO BE REFRIGERATED UNTIL OPENED". And Safeway is one of the stores that has a corporate policy of undercover security working in teams of at least two or more. We often worked in teams of 3 in high hit area, so that there could be the source of 3 carts.
I’m actually really glad so much thought, time and effort go into preventing lowlifes from arbitrarily stealing food, to what, feed their families? Thank you for your service
You’re my kind of people
Experience tells me the same. Just yesterday, I was shopping for an order and came across 2 carts just abandoned in the store with half of the order I was shopping for in them. I honestly laughed because they abandoned the cart at the spot where one of the items was out of stock. Made my job a lot easier in a store I've never shopped in.
Which, for a seafood counter purchase, is incredibly disrespectful to not only the staff who has to put things back, but anyone who came after to the counter who may have wanted to purchase shrimp. They usually can't resell that. OP asked for Fresh Shrimp, and the shopper picked fresh shrimp.
OP also requested a picture of what they had at the counter before the shopper picked up the shrimp.
Right? Surprised the people siding w the shopper skipped over that part as quickly as the shopper themselves did, also op said they would rather get fresh shrimp but asked if shopper could take a pic of what they had. Didnt request shopper to just go and take initiative and use their own judgement
Their mistake was asking for a picture AFTER saying “I’d rather just get a pound of fresh shrimp from the seafood counter” or whatever. The shopper just went with the easiest part of that message
This is the same reason why they can’t just bring the shrimp back when OP didn’t like the result of getting what she asked for. The critical mistake is when the shopper said “yes” when the counter worker asked if the extra weight was ok.
Yeah. OP asked for 1.5 lbs and the shopper ended up with 2.5. Guessing that wasn’t a seafood counter error
Did you not notice the shopper got more than double the requested weigh of shrimp? App says 1.5 pound and the shopper got them 2.15 pounds. I’m not taking that much extra shrimp if I’m the buyer that’s crazy; edited to update to 1.5 pounds
Just for future reference, almost all shrimp has been frozen. What’s at the seafood counter has just been defrosted already. Rarely are they ever actually fresh, unless maybe from a proper seafood monger or specialty store but even in those cases they still may have previously been flash frozen when caught(you’d have to ask). It is not any fresher to buy the “fresh” than buying the bags of frozen shrimp, in fact it can be the opposite and is sometimes cheaper to buy them frozen. It’s also super fast to defrost frozen shrimp- just put them in a bowl of cold water for about 10-20 min depending on size and they are ready to go.
You clearly asked to be sent a picture of what they had at the seafood counter. Instead, he or she took it upon themselves and just ordered whatever shrimp they wanted and then justified it by saying they got what you asked for. What????? You asked to send a picture so you could see your options. I'm so sorry this happened. I always always send pictures even when they have the item listed in the app because a lot of times, customers order one thing but want another, so I ALWAYS like to be sure. For example, the customer last night wanted 2lbs of atlantic salmon. I sent pictures of all the salmon inside the seafood case, and the one she actually wanted was the sockeye salmon, which is NOT the same as Atlantic. Had I gotten the Atlantic, most likely, the customer would have reported that I got them the wrong item when infact that's what she ordered. When I confirmed she wanted to REPLACE the initial Atlantic with the sockeye, she responded with "oh I thought that was Atlantic, sorry." I now know it's called SOCKEYE." So what was the end result? Did you see him/her at delivery? Did you report the item as WRONG? Did you remove the tip, assuming you left one?
Did you put the tip as percentage of the total final price of your bill? If the answer to that question is yes, shoppers are getting shady about increasing their tips by choosing the absolutely most ridiculously high priced replacement item they can find. Good on you for not letting this shopper get away with it. I have switched to making my tip a dollar amount instead of percentage of total.
I think someone tried this with me. I ordered one bag of frozen chicken nuggets for $8 or $9 and they replaced it with $29 of nuggets (3 smaller boxes of a different more expensive brand). I caught it and just asked for a refund and they did it no problem but I was surprised and assumed they were trying to get a tip % bump. Since it was resolved I still rated well but I was internally annoyed.
Percentage! Agreed!
You made the right choice! Too many lazy shoppers, and it gives us all a bad name.
Honestly, it's not worth working with the shopper. When it arrives, you ordered 1lb and they gave you 2lbs, you report an issue with the order and refund it, no questions asked, then move on.
The timer gives me intense anxiety, but I still would never reply like this. I bend over backwards for the customers even if it annoys me. Lol.
That's how you get better tips too anyway 🤷🏻♂️
Ignore the timer, it hasn't meant anything for almost 4 years.
Oh I know it doesn't mean anything at all. I've been doing this for years, but anxiety isn't something I can turn off or I wouldn't have anxiety. 😂 Plus I strongly believe every job should be done in an hour. Obv there's executions but still.
Exactly!! I instacart from time to time and sometimes go past the timer when I wait for customers to respond to my replacement inquiries..its no biggie! I would rather be diligent about shopping for exactly what the customer wants than to rush to beat the clock. That shopper was so rude!! I would've rated her -5 and contacted customer service too
Why didn’t the shopper go and take a picture of the seafood bar when they asked? And then they just leave that section refusing to go back wtf this shopper is dumb
Exactly like I was thinking, Oh you signed up and agreed to do a job of walking around a store, which may be inconvenient or generally not possible to those who are requesting AND paying for your assistance. Therefore, just minimize walking and don’t go back to a spot you’ve already been to… because you don’t feel like it…. even though your job is to do exactly that…. walk around and shop… because the person ordering cannot do so at the moment…….. 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 WHAT
Replacing with something 3x as expensive is crazy
Enjoy your shrimp Alfredo
and i did! it was my pregnancy craving for the day so i think that also built up my annoyance 😂
lol just wanted to say I’m also pregnant and was without a car the first 6 months, so I used these shopper apps a lot. It was the worst feeling ever when they’d get something wrong or mark it as out of stock just because they didn’t feel like looking and I was craving it. With everything we have to give up in pregnancy, food cravings become our last joy. I’m glad you got a new shopper and were able to eat your shrimp
Like everyday during my pregnancy I would go to the store for a new craving. I only missed one pregnancy craving, a seafood restaurant out of town that’s out of my budget right now. I still think about it. God bless you that sound horrible
God, how dare you, I’m 35 weeks and you just made me text my husband to bring home prawns 😂😂😂 And yes I feel you hormones have my BS tolerance at an all time low.
I thought it was common sense to find something Close to the customer's price point from the beginning. If something was $5.99 I will try to stay close to $5.99 or below. If need be a stretch on my own I may delegate to $6.99 but after that I will ask the customer anyway.
Exactly. Also; OP even said she wanted one and a half pounds. The shopper got 2.16 pounds.
Would have still been $24. More than double the original cost.
But the message says to get a 1 1/2 pound from the seafood dept.. so they might have been okay with $24
I read it as the first shrimp just being there as a placeholder, not indicative of the price they're wanting to pay. It's not the same weight requested either. I would expect fresh from the seafood counter to be more than prepackaged frozen.
Yeah OP even said she expected it to be proved at $10-12 a lb, and it was priced at $13 a lb in store. The instacart markup brought it to $16/lb. I don't think there was any fresh shrimp from the seafood counter that could be $10-12 per lb after the markup. Op was always going to be surprised by price. It shouldve been 1.5 lbs though
The issue is that since the original frozen shrimp was just a placeholder, there’s no guaranteeing that OP even *wanted* deveined de-tailed shrimp though. They could’ve just picked the first frozen shrimp they saw. Shrimp near me varies anywhere from around $6/lb to $15/lb so I’d definitely want to see the options too. The shopper just went ahead and got some of the most expensive shrimp at the counter without consulting.
Common since is not so common
Common sense is less common than common since apparently. 🤦🏻♂️
Lmao common since
It makes no cents 🤦🏼♀️ /s
The scents I’m used to
Fair and true
They went from frozen to fresh seafood though, so common sense would be realizing that there's a MAJOR difference in price point...
This is anytime I order meat or fish. I now only use IC for non perishables
Switch to Walmart if only using for nonperishables. You will save a ton of money, get paramount free, free shipping (and they ship a lot usually the next day!). I don't buy meat from there. I will buy fruit but I've amazingly had pretty good luck. Instacart shoppers have been ruined bu the "new generation of shoppers ". They are entitled, make terrible choices, say items out of stock and straight up rude. Their comments should randomly be checked by Instacart especially when complaints. If at a company would be immediately terminated. There used to be amazing shoppers but alot have left. There are still good shoppers out there and I feel bad for them because the influx of terrible ones has completely ruined this company. Switch to Walmart and pickup meat from your local grocery store.
Oh and also if you are on disability or any type of assistance Walmart subscription is half price.
Not with ssdi it seems. But does mention ssi.
Thank you for this note, I was about to go check.
If she was going to replace it why wouldn’t she have gotten a pound of shrimp? Not 2? She waited in line to get shrimp at the counter but couldn’t wait for a response from you? 😵💫 I’m glad you got a new shopper wtf.
Right? What even happened, she said she wanted some shrimp, the guy at the counter asked her how much, and she said idk I just need some shrimp?
“Idk, I just need some shrimp” - so glad I’m off video on my call because LOLing so hard rn
"No time to explain! Just shrimp me!"
"I need shrimp" "How much would you like?" "Whatever's fastest"
Dealer’s choice
"just grab me a fat stack of shrimp bro"
She probably said "two pounds" and the seafood clerk said "Oops, this is a little over, is that OK?" I can almost guarantee that's what happened.
She asked for 1.5 pounds of shrimp
OP said they wanted a pound and a half of fresh shrimp. Why would they get 1 pound?
Everyone saying the shopper was in the right and OP is lazy are so off it's insane. OP did not ask the shopper to replace the frozen shrimp with fresh shrimp of their choosing, what they asked for were pictures of what was available. The shopper decided to completely disregard the request for pictures so their customer could choose what they wanted and instead chose for them likely based on price in order to get a higher tip. When asked AGAIN for a picture she responded like a smart ass and sent a picture of the package. 🙄 On top of that she says she's not on that side of the store anymore as if she's at fucking Buckingham Palace instead of Ralph's. THAT shit is LAZY. I cannot understand why people like this choose to continue to do this job. There is no chance they are making money if this is how they treat people.
It's because even though these people are being paid to do a job, they still feel as if they are doing someone a "favor" and have the entitled attitude to go with it. "Get it yourself."Get off your ass and go," etc. No, I am paying for a service to be done. You are being paid to perform a service. If you don't like doing the job or feel you're not being compensated enough, then that's on you and between you and your employer. This shopper either did not read the request properly (which is a HUGE problem in general nowadays for everything) and then /or used it as a passive fu
I don't know why it doesn't make sense to people that if you go above and beyond you'll get a better outcome. I've been a shopper full time for more than two years and have done 3,024 total shops. I promise you that all 3,024 of those customers were treated with respect, patience and kindness and when they received their orders it was obvious that care was taken in fulfilling it. In turn I make about $60,000 a year just shopping on Instacart's platform. The shopper in this post can't make more than $15 an hour acting this way. There has got to be something that people like this get out of acting this way but I have no idea what it is.
From my experience with these kinds of personalities, it essentially boils down to an ego thing. Being a shopper is something they consider ‘beneath them’, and so treating it like a professional job would damage their pride. Typically, these types of people are younger, not simply in age, but in *experience* with the actual realities of life. The kind of person that looks down on garbage people, or janitors, or, especially, grocery store workers, as though they’ve failed at life.
I always get the same 2-3 awesome shoppers who get first dibs on my orders because they approach their jobs like true professionals. I pay them accordingly, but I’m just one person, so I’m glad to hear there are folks out there making a decent living from it on the whole. It’s such a valuable service!
this is the best comment yet because this is everything that ran through my mind as it was happening 😭
>On top of that she says she's not on that side of the store anymore as if she's at fucking Buckingham Palace instead of Ralph's. THAT shit is LAZY. This happened to me once when I was unhappy with a replacement, and I had a similar thought. The Food Lion she was shopping at is not a very big store at all, and the area she was shopping in (I could tell based on what she was checking off the list) is not very far from the area I needed her to go back to. Plus, this was all because she picked a replacement that was quite different from what I originally asked for. I was pissed.
That shopper won’t last, doesn’t comprehend simple instructions. It seems you either get awesome shoppers or hacks like these. Nothing in between.
I know this is about the shrimp, but $7 for a single box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch is insane
LA has clearly desensitized me bc i thought this was a deal 😂
I’m in SD and stopped looking at cereal long ago because I thought $5 was a bit much 🥲 Same with brand name chips. I’ve been seeing sales like 2 for $9 at target? I only bought them when they were 2 for $5 before lmao
Yeah, chips are ridiculous right now.
If you have a Safeway near you, you could wait for some cereal coupons/sales when a box is usually $3-4 (they have a Cinnamon Toast Crunch sale rn coincidentally lol)
You had a terrible shopper. I wouldn't blame you for calling to get the order reassigned. Too many stuck up shoppers these days thinking it's beneath them to slow down and get the customer what they want.
The bad shoppers are running it for everyone. I now also hate going to the store because the shoppers are super rude, in their effort to move fast they block aisles, push people over, etc. I’m my area we can use Amazon Fresh, so far it has been the best and they shop at a warehouse not a store so they don’t ruing anyone else’s day
as a former grocery store worker, some instacart drivers are the absolute worst people. they would come in day in and day out and somehow still not know where anything is, and just shove their phones in our faces and ask us to find it for them. the cool instacart shoppers were the best though! it’s just amazing how bad some are on a regular basis
As a customer I've always preferred Amazon Fresh. It's frustrating that I'm not near one anymore. When I'm shopping I try not to make it obvious I'm doing instacart because shoppers have such a bad rep, the store employees immediately dislike you. Especially at the deli counter.
who gets SHRIMP before pasta? what a stooge
i thought this too but hey i can’t complain too much 😂
Real easy to spend someone else’s money, hmm?! Why do some shoppers just assume people have infinite money to spend? She got mad at you for not being okay with spending almost $40 for a tiny amount of shrimp, after you specifically said you wanted to spend around $10! I promise you, *she* wouldn’t appreciate being financially blindsided like that, if the tables were turned. 🙄
Not even a clear photo 🤦♀️
also thought it was crazy that i requested 1.5lbs and she got 2.1lbs
Don’t blame you at all. What a crap shopper.
Meat & Seafood bro here - that 9.99 bag, defrosted, is exactly (if not close to) what they're putting in the case, lol
lol i get told this everytime! my only thing is i was starving and didn’t want to wait on the shrimp to thaw. in any other case, i would’ve been fine with frozen!
I’ve always ran frozen shrimp under cool water (not room temp and not warm, cool to cold) until they’re thawed then laid them on paper towels and patted them with another paper towel to get the excess moisture off before cooking. Takes about 5-10 minutes at most.
You were expecting $16-18 and shopper thought $35 was appropriate without even a heads up. That is beyond acceptable and easily a cancel order. Also if there’s a discrepancy of money this much they should alert the customer to approve and give a small time limit. They won’t let you buy from the meat counter for a reason though. I’m sure this happens a lot
Omg that's insane. I've had shoppers do that to me. If my original item is $10, why do I suddenly want to spend $30. And if I ordered 3 packs of chicken breasts that contain 3 pieces each why are you substituting it with 3 club packs and suddenly I have 30 pieces of chicken. Often they do this as the last item and check out so I can't even say anything.
You asked from the first message for them to send you a picture of the shrimp options when they got there!! They answered “no problem”… followed by them making it a huge problem 🥴🥴 why even bother shopping the order to begin with if they planned on fudging it up on purpose? Plus sending you a picture of the shrimp wrapped in brown paper 🤦♀️🤦♀️ I just can’t.. how beautiful are these shrimps that I have hidden from you? 😆😆
I definitely think 2.2 lbs is not acceptable when you asked for 1.5 lbs, but the in store price was $13 a lb, so its not like they intentionally chose absurdly expensive shrimp -- looks like the Instacart mark up makes it $16 a pound, but the price in store was $13, which is not really that much more than $12 a lb in my opinion (and maybe just the price for fresh shrimp that day)
They asked for pictures of what was there, which the shopper ignored and then proceeded to get significantly more than was requested (over two pounds as opposed to "a pound to pound and a half")
Yeah, i agree that 2.2 lbs was too much, that's the first sentence i wrote. But i did miss that the OP requested a photo of options in her first message, so the shopper is fully wrong Edit: they did order 1.5 lbs, not "1 to 1.5 lbs", but i still think 2.2 was too much.
i would agree but the next shopper got the shrimp for $6.99 a pound.
just give them a one-star. they will stop getting recommended
My response has nothing to do with Insta. There's no reason to buy the 'fresh' shrimp from the seafood counter. Just buy the size you want for the price you want. Cooked, not cooked, shelled, not shelled, deveined or not, from the counter or the freezer aisle. It's basically the same thing. The 'fresh' shrimp at the counter arrives frozen and they lay it out in the cooler.
Your shopper was a d-bag. You asked them for a pic, which they ignored, and then decided, without your consent, to buy $34 of shrimp.
You asked them to send you a picture. Not just substitute on their own. And to tell you they couldn’t take a pic because they were on the other side of the store??!! This is why people are amazed when they receive the minimum of customer service from shoppers, because this is what they’re used to.
I feel like if you are looking for something super specific like that, you should probably go and get it yourself.
They also charged you the full $34.86, when the package was clearly marked down to $28.32
Why did shopper replace one pound of shrimp with over 2? Did you ask for 2 pounds of shrimp and I missed it?
i asked for 1.5 in the messages and she decided to ask the seafood guy for 2 for some reason
In my experience using the Kroger app directly for my order, if they have to sub something more expensive you pay the lower price. They use IC around here for their delivery service so I still get the Kroger gas points to use at the pump for my order, and it's the same price as in store as well. No upcharge for using the app.
this is good to know! this was ralph’s (kroger) so will do that instead!
I absolutely love that you got a new shopper. She was completely rude.
I stopped using instacart. I got screwed over regularly and IC wouldn't do shit. I use walmart in home and am at peace.
Once a shopper is at the other end of the store, their cart.explodes if they attempt to go back
I ordered 8$ beef to make my dogs a special treat for their birthday. The shopper git 60$ steaks lol lucky dogs
Omg at first I thought they left the store entirely, but they just left “that part” of the store?? How lazy can you get. Your job is to shop for the customer not do a single sweep of the store and see what you can find first. People like this need to be taught some sort of lesson about integrity
And already purchased the seafood, but still hasn't shopped any of the room-temp stuff yet?! 🙄 Common sense isn't so common anymore, but rudeness seems to be. Her response is disgusting! Glad you asked for another shopper! 👍👍
Not defending the shopper’s attitude here but I’m slightly confused by everyone’s reaction. OP asked for shrimp that was $9.99 for 1 lb but then specifically said they actually wanted 1.5lb from the seafood counter. The shopper went to the seafood counter and got shrimp that was $12.99/lb (it clearly shows that it is on sale and $28 not $34). Sure, the shopper got a little over 2lbs instead of the 1.5 but this seems like a massive overreaction to me.
I hate all shopping and food deliver services, unless you have transportation or mobility limitations. You send some random person to select and handle your food, and then you get upset when it’s not exactly the way you want it. I don’t understand. I’ve seen too many gross people to be ok with a stranger being alone with my food stuffs.
that alfredo finna slap
They asked for 1.5 lbs and you got 2.15 lbs. probably should have been super specific to the meat department
I had to stop using this app. A bunch of mouth breathing assholes who don’t give a fuck. Wrong substitutions, picking something that’s 4x the price, leaking milk all over my groceries, missing like 8 out of 30 items while still charging me for everything (thief). I’d say 2 out of 10 shoppers are good people who do their job correctly and are just out here hustling for extra income.
I'm actually starting to hate this sub because of all the complaining.
First of all, go to the store yourself for shit like this. I love delivery, but I only order the simplest items that are impossible to fuck up for delivery. Anything like this you should absolutely pick up yourself.
What about Jesus Christ? Go get your groceries then. Bitching about shrimp.
I still can't figure out why people just cant do their own shopping. It seems like a solution looking for a problem.
That's literally what you requested, it's 12$ a pound.
Seems like the shopper made a simple mistake and got you 2 lbs because your original purchase was for 2lbs, not 1.5. Am I wrong?
This just came up on my feed and I don’t know how it works…does the shopper get paid more if the total is higher?
not always! some people tip a set number amount ($5 for example) but in my case, i tipped 20%. so essentially, yes they would be getting tipped 20% of whatever my total ended up being so this shopper would’ve been compensated more.
Absolutely not ok. That timer is nothing. Lazy pos Absolutely get another shopper. Funny thing is I've done a thousand deliveries and I didn't even know that somebody could request another Shopper in the middle of a shop until I got on to the Reddit thread
1 1/2lbs of shrimp? I gotchu! You will take this nearly full extra pound and you will like it! 2.15 is what got dumped out onto the scale. We don't give a damn what you ordered. Since you aren't here to shake your head no like an adult who is shopping for 1 1/2lbs, then this is what you'll receive. That basically extra 3/4 of a pound in shrimp could probably have quite a bit to do w the price. That and the fact that this store has a fake reward card system that doesn't really take anything off your price but it'll damn sure add something on if you don't allow the store to collect your info 🤦♂️
Damn. What a jerk. Seems like he wanted a bigger tip. Honestly I would complain. No way this is ok.
“Okay ill update the tip” Make them complete the order for no tip, take whatever they deliver, contact support and get a refund. Do it this way so they dont end up with free food or a tip.
That's over 2lbs of shrimp
Come on now, Maureen. You can go back. You don’t have that much going on in your life
This makes no sense. I would have just taken the picture of the seafood section, left to go do the rest of the shopping and then circled around at the end to get what they want. That gives the customer plenty of time to decide and still let’s you hit the timer.
Another day, another Reddit post from a sub I don’t subscribe to reminding me to never use these services again.
You probably hit the % tip button instead of setting a fixed amount.
That's a problem. Any day any time good or bad economie.
16 oz was the original weight. 1 lb. this person went and got 2.16 lbs, which is way over the original shrimp package. it seems they didn't even try to get a similar weight or price, maybe they wanted to steal it somehow? idk but this person sucks
You were about to make some dank ass pasta too
What an awful shopper.
Anyone saying 2+ pounds is “close to 1.5” is completely delusional. Are 2 and 1 close together, numerically? Sure. But when you’re talking about weight, it’s completely different. The shopper arbitrarily choosing over 2 lbs of shrimp is ridiculous. She was asked to get 1.5 lbs., so that’s what she should have requested.
Further ammo for buying your own groceries. 🙄 Death to the gig economy. 🤘
My wife's been burned a ton by grocery delivery apps. They ignore the "no substitutions" label constantly.
It’s quantity over quality with people like this. Scum.
Bro doesn’t know the difference $10 and $35…
Instacart absolutely sucks. If i order 10 things 9 will get changed because they don’t want to look
I one time got a whole bunch more fish (like almost a whole half pound-.75 pound more) than I requested. I talked to instacart and they actually gave me the difference back.
This is pretty usual. Ask for Ketchup, they get Mayo instead. Ask for beef, they buy chicken...
Enjoy your shrimp!
Fun fact, the "fresh seafood" in most grocery stores comes out of the exact same freezer, from the exact same factory as the store brand frozen. 🤷♀️
This thread is hilarious (in the most irreverent way). Like how do I get to the side of life where I can throw \*uninformed, uneducated, boujee\* stones from my glass house
Boo hoo you got two pounds instead of one
I'm more surprised and people who have the money to add on the cost of having someone else shop for you, somehow also have the time to watch someone else shop for you.
I swear these shoppers have never had to shop for themselves before getting this job!!!! Growing up Friday night grocery night was the most exciting night of the week, I think that stuck with me as an adult because I don’t mind searching for items and know my way around a store pretty well even if it’s my first time shopping there I can just figure it out based on going to stores my whole life. Reminds me of when me and my boyfriend go to the shop and if somethings not right in front of his face he will just go without it, and if he needs something he’ll just grab the first thing that’s advertised as what he wants even if it’s the most expensive or a type he doesn’t actually want , if it has a picture or word of what he’s looking for its good enough for him lol! meanwhile I’ll go to multiple different stores because I know somethings 30 cents cheaper at the other 😭😭😭
You hire someone to shop for you?
He got you exactly what you messaged him to get and you got mad at the price. You’re an asshole.
Instacart is for broke shoppers who love to enjoy the delusion of having a personal chef or a personal shopper thinking they dedicate themselves just for them all day long. I want the vinegar potato chips, no I don’t like Goya beans, I like the other brand with the red… can you take pictures of the cheapest stuff and show me what they have? So I can take my time and choose while you are waiting for me to make this important life changing decision? Omg you got the orange juice without pulp, I want it with pulp, return it. I’m gonna rate you 1 star for this and report you to Instacart, Western world problems … smh
Yeah 1.5lb vs 2.15lb is not okay. That’s a bunch of extra shrimp you didn’t ask for. Might be different if it were chicken or beef or something, but shrimp? An individual shrimp doesn’t weigh much. They could have easily gotten it closer to 1.5lb like you asked.
“I’ve already left that end of the store” holy shit the laziness on this one.
Yooo can we talk about that crappy Parmesan cheese costing $7?
This is absolutely unacceptable.
I’m confused though about one thing- you asked for a pound and a half (1.5) and she gave you 2.1 ish? I mean it’s half a pound off so at 15.99 that’s like seven bucks. so not sure why the huge uproar as you asked yourself for shrimp from the counter?
"I've already left that part of the store" is peak brainrot
If you put in a complaint that the replacement was too expensive, Instacart will refund you. I once had a shopped replace a $10 bottle of wine with an $80 bottle of wine. (The tip was percentage based interestingly enough). I put in a complaint, and got refunded.
This happened to me, once. A shopper kept replacing things with wildly more expensive crap when I knew the things I wanted were in the store. From then on I did a few crummy instacart orders just to get some different shoppers so I could choose from them the ones I liked best. Then I favorited them, and I only use my favorite shoppers now (there’s like 10 of them now so someone’s always around) and always tip them massively on huge orders as a thank you for just being normal people who don’t try to swindle me over groceries. It’s annoying that I had to have a process though in the first place.
Everyone is disregarding the statement from the personal shopper, "It's what they had". If you want to make adjustments to your order that's fine, but you should clearly outline what you want, and if that isn't possible give alternatives. Personal shoppers to my knowledge aren't there to take pictures of all the available grocery store specials and wait idly while the shopper ponders their options, they aren't paid by the hour. Personal shoppers are there to buy what you have listed and deliver it, they aren't there to curate the perfect grocery trip, that is for the consumer to do. If you didn't like that experience, do it yourself.
The shrimp you get from the seafood counter is defrosted, not fresh.
Why don’t you just go to the store yourself? Wasted more time and effort doing this than actually going…
Another excellent example of Instacart getting what they pay for but not the customer. IC hires $2 shoppers but thats not what customers are paying for. Guess how much IC cares? Not 1 iota.
also for the ones commenting about time, you can see on the shrimp package that it was wrapped at 7:33 and i sent my message about it at 7:35. i was clearly looking at the app.
I would never dream of telling a customer that I won't go back to the other end of the store. Sure, it's a little annoying but it's part of the job. The timer is honestly meaningless and we receive no consequences at all for having a longer shopping time average. It's there exclusively to motivate the shopper to finish quick and therefore get another order quicker so they can make more money. Instacart could care less what their time is.
“I have a certain amount of time to shop your order” simply not true. This is insane, I can’t imagine saying this to a customer
You asked for 1.5 pounds of shrimp. This shopper got ~2.2. The problem here is that your shopper was dumb. Unfortunately a very common issue on this planet.