Is Instacart a good full-time job? (find out!)
Instacart is one of the fastest growing companies in America. The company is easily the largest grocery and other essentials delivery company in the United States.
The company has operations in all 50 states that make up the United States, as well as in Canada.
With more than 40,000 stores in both countries, Instacart is the largest grocery delivery company in North America
Is Instacart a good full-time job?
Yes, Instacart is a great place to work. With an average rating of 3.4, it is one of the best companies to work for in America.
In addition to this, the company enjoys a rating of over 60%. 83% of Instacart employees also think it’s a good place to work, compared to 57% of the average US company.
Currently, Instacart has more than 10,000 employees divided into two main categories. These workers are either full-service workers or in-store workers.
full service worker
Instacart’s full-service workers are the category of workers who perform the entire delivery process. They are known as a category of Instacart shoppers, sometimes referred to as “Instacart drivers.”
The full-service staff do their own grocery shopping and personally deliver them to the customer’s home or wherever he likes.
Instacart sometimes refers to these types of workers as independent contractors because they can choose to work any time they like. They are regular instacart employees who deliver on Instacart as a part-time job, earning extra income on top of their regular jobs.
Full-service workers are typically paid based on the number of deliveries they complete each week, including tips they receive from customers after deliveries are complete.
They are also not entitled to full-time employee benefits, which include paid time off, health insurance and other benefits that full-time employees can get at any time.
Read: Why Is Instacart Waitlisting Me?
shop worker
On the other hand, in-store employees are not just regular Instacart employees. They are a class of workers whose job is to stay in a particular store and pack their orders together as customers come in.
In-store workers have a much simpler job than full-service shoppers because they don’t have to do the deliveries themselves. Their job description ends when they pack a client’s grocery delivery request.
Then after packing, they simply drop it off at the designated pickup location for delivery.
Being an in-store shopper has its own unique benefits. In addition to being able to schedule your own work hours, you can also enjoy paid time off. There is also a guarantee of continued work.
The average hourly rate for an in-store shopper is about $15 an hour, which can rise to about $20 an hour depending on the city’s location.
Pros and cons of working at Instacart
As you might expect, while Instacart may be a great company to work for, its employees don’t feel the disadvantage is without a few minor deficiencies.
The pros (pros) and cons (cons) of working at Instacart are discussed below:
Pros of working at Instacart
At Instacart, both full-service shoppers and in-store shoppers have their own unique strengths.
However, as expected, the gains for in-store shoppers outweighed those for full-service workers by a wide margin.
This is mainly because the in-store employees are genuine Instacart employees and thus qualify for the same benefits as employees of other major US companies.
Benefits for Instacart in-store employees include
- Health Benefits: Instacart provides adequate medical benefits to its employees. These include health insurance, dental insurance, vision and mental health insurance, and more.
Employees are also entitled to paid sick leave, paid paternity leave and maternity leave, as the company strives to support working parents.
- Mass retirement/401(k) plan: A 401(k) is an employer-sponsored individual pension account that provides tax deductions for employee contributions to pensions. These contributions are automatically deducted from the employee’s salary and used for retirement.
Basically, it’s a retirement plan for people who have worked at Instacart for many years and want to retire.
Such a person will be eligible to receive the pension he has saved while working in the company.
- Instacart employees are also entitled to other workplace benefits including: free drinks/food at work, casual dress code, relaxed work environment, and more.
- For full-service workers, Instacart gives them a lot of leeway and flexibility, including the ability to choose the lot they want to buy. There is also no limit to the number of batches they can produce. Full-service workers can also decide their hours, the number of hours they themselves want to work on a given day.
- Plus, because Instacart is available in over 5,000 cities in the US, even if you decide to move to another city, you can still work on Instacart no matter where you are. As long as the instacart is in the city, all you have to do is change your location and you’re ready to go!
Read: Can Instacart shoppers use Ibotta?
Disadvantages of working at Instacart
Some of the disadvantages of working at Instacart include:
- Working as a full-service shopper at Instacart is a gig and there is no guarantee that an Instacart driver will continue to work. Shoppers have to wait until customers place an order to work and get paid.
- Instacart drivers are not reimbursed for delivery fees associated with each order. Full-service shoppers pay for their purchases, including: gas, vehicle insurance, vehicle maintenance, taxes, and more.
- Working as an in-store employee or full-service employee at Instacart is also very demanding. Workers are sometimes subjected to strenuous physical labor.
- Also, while this downside is not unique to Instacart, there are inherent dangers to package delivery gigs as a whole. Instacart shoppers sometimes drive to certain known dangerous neighborhoods for deliveries, leaving them vulnerable to bodily injury or other hazards.
How much does a full-time job at Instacart make?
Instacart pays its full-service employees based on the number of deliveries and its in-store employees based on the number of hours worked.
The average hourly rate for an in-store shopper is about $15 an hour, which can rise to about $20 an hour depending on the city’s location.
A full-service worker, on the other hand, can earn up to $15 per hour before tipping, or up to $25 per hour before tipping, depending on his location or your city.
Generally, these two categories of workers can earn between $800 and $1,000 per week, depending on the number of hours worked and delivery tips received from customers.
Read: How to Sign Out of Instacart: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide
in conclusion…
Instacart is easily one of the best courier companies to work in in the US, either as your main source of livelihood or as a means of earning some extra income outside of your main job.
However, working at Instacart, either as an in-store shopper or as a full-service shopper, has its pros and cons, and while both are highly profitable, it is recommended that you do further research to determine which is best for you , which fits perfectly into your schedule
If you use Instacart as a way to earn side income while also having your main income, you may want to consider scheduling your Instacart gigs closer to the evening or evening.
There is no specific time of day when more orders are placed because there are always orders to be filled 24/7. All you need to do is log into your Instacart app anytime, choose the order that suits you and fill it out.
In conclusion, whether Instacart is your full-time or part-time job, customer satisfaction should always be your top priority in order to get good reviews from your customers.
Bad service delivery only attracts bad ratings, which can affect you as a shopper in the long run.
