That’s what we’ve been doing for our primary grocery shopping. It’s like $5 extra and it’s done by an employee of the store. They would be otherwise working in the store doing other things so it makes me feel less guilty about not doing it myself.
I still do go into the specialty, local deli/butcher like once or twice a week. I talk to the butcher/owner occasionally and they’ve been in business for a few decades but would absolutely not be able to survive if people stopped going in person. I think they have a tiny catering business but that has stopped basically. It’s a really tough situation, made worse because meat/beef prices have been extremely high right now too, which dissuades people from shopping there even more.
I stopped by Target to pickup an online order this morning and saw a sign that said they were hiring starting at $15/hour. My first thought was that I hope some Instacart-type workers apply (or unemployed people, obviously). I hear working at Target kind of sucks, but minimum $15/hour plus whatever benefits they might have could be better than lots of gig jobs.
Nanodaughter worked at Target last holiday season (eta: I think it was the holiday season before last). The pay was ok, but she did not like it other than that. Some of that was retail sucking (customers) and some of that was management. She liked her subsequent job at the gelato shop a lot better.
Anything retail sucks. Anything public facing sucks. Anything customer facing sucks - which is why I got out of project management and into individual contributor type of work.
I imagine working at target is better than working at walmart or an amazon warehouse though.
I pick up my own groceries, but I’ve been tipping a lot more during the pandemic, basically 30% min. I stop at a bagel shop sometimes to pick up breakfast and I usually tip them $6-7 on my orders, which are never over $9
I pay $8 a month to book a free weekly delivery from this place. I can choose from 6 others. No tip as the supermarket pay the delivery driver and buys the van etc.
It’s been this way since 2007 so funny to see you guys have a thread on this in 2020.
I pay $4,776/yr for this, so $2.39/hr. Call it $2.50.
So a 4% bump (two weeks paid time off).
$15 + 2.5 = $17.5 * 1.04 = $18.20
A $20 tip plus $7 from instacart = $27 for an average of one hour = 48% bump for hazard pay.
I’ve done this a few times and thought about doing it more, but they’re basically not getting paid for the work, so it’s essentially just shifting the demand for labor from Instacart to the store’s employees, who I would imagine are being paid way worse.
They’re not supposed to be allowed to accept tips, although I’ve tipped them and they’ve taken it. It makes me feel sketch like I could get them fired or something, but obviously they could always turn it down if they were worried about it.
I highly doubt they’re getting benefits at Target, especially in this economy - I’m sure they’re all getting < 30 hours a week. Having done neither anytime recently (I worked in a grocery store as a teenager for a little over $6 an hour), I’d try Instacart and see what I made before taking a job at Target for $15/hr.
A huge percentage of the people in this country are being forced back to work who don’t want to, for way less than what it would take for me to go work in person and risk my life. That’s not my fault, we’re all stuck playing our parts in this situation. I’m at high risk if I catch it, so my indoor exposure is limited to the minimal amount I can get by with to make a living and beyond that the number I’d go out for is astronomical.
Like essentially what you’re doing is putting the failure of this country and of this government on those of us using Instacart, while ignoring that using Instacart does reduce the opportunity for community spread, and while ignoring that what we’re paying to compensate them is still higher than they’d be getting to work in the stores while they’re taking less risk doing this.
Essentially your line here is to take righteous anger at the system and apply it to individuals who you think can/should do things differently, while ignoring that the reality is that all of our personal physical health outlooks are directly correlated to our finances because we live in America.
If I run out of a certain amount of money for my business, my income will be significantly lower for a long time which will have direct impacts on my long-term physical health because of the way this country works. I have mediocre health insurance, and I already skip getting care for stuff because of the cost. I have lingering sleep, neck, shoulder, and ankle problems that I haven’t attempted to get treated for several years. I could afford to pay the deductible ($6K I think) generally speaking, but it would reduce my safety net and financial security, so I’m making the trade off - maybe if things go back to normal soon enough and I can make a lot of money the next year or two, I’ll feel secure enough long-term to start shelling out for some of that. That’s the system we live in, and the types of choices we’re forced to make. Nobody should feel bad for me, I’m not broke or poor by any stretch, but I do think anyone who would feel safe in this system with my current finances is probably just naive to the system.
This stuff also has direct impacts on my long-term financial security, as I expect my retirement to be entirely self-funded in this lovely nation. Nobody is bailing me out of that situation anytime soon, my only hope is to make enough money to be able to protect my physical health and my long-term financial health… and who knows how long I’ll be able to do that in my line of work?
If I knew somebody was going to bail me out if I ended up out of work and broke, or if I was confident in Social Security and we had Medicare for All, I’d be way more likely to have less regard for my personal finances right now and to worry less about running out of the amount of money I need to keep making a good living when this is over. But it’s the other way, and I know the only thing that’ll happen if I get myself in that spot is that someone will have their foot on my throat trying to climb past me.
So until then I’m going to stick with paying what I think is a fair amount for the services, doing my part to slow the spread as much as I can, and trying to avoid being stuck with my hand out ever again in a country that has turned screwing over the poor into a new national pastime of a bloodsport, and people who want to shame me for paying above the going rate can do so, but the reality is what it is. We all have to live in it unless/until it changes.
Shaming those of us who are trying to pay a fair amount while reducing our personal risk for health reasons, reducing our role in the risk of community spread, and not blowing through our savings that are directly correlated to our future health/safety in this shitshow of a country is, I guess, par for the course around here, but it’s pretty ridiculous in the context of this society if you ask me.
We know that Instacart gives them $7-10, and I know I tip 10% or more and my average order is about $200, so I know how much they make on average from me. They’d make more per hour if they were getting bundled orders with other customers, which I’m sure they are sometimes but not always.
It may be worth trying again, if nothing else it seems more likely people are going to be wearing masks in grocery stores, and I would imagine the pay is better but maybe not. Looks like rural TN is pretty fucked on masks, based on your pictures, so I dunno what to think it would be like in a grocery store.
From what I looked up the avg is much lower. If the numbers are right I’d for sure rather work at the local grocery store I shop at who pays their employees more with benefits.
I agree that I’m probably tipping above the average, and their average hourly is probably less than what I’m paying them.
Do most grocery store workers get benefits? I assumed most are getting < 30 hours a week and no benefits. I know when I worked at one I wasn’t allowed to go over a certain number of hours for that reason, but I think back then it was 40 hours to require benefits.
Different ones pay different. The one I shop at is pretty good with pay and benefits for the full timers. They treated their part time like crap at least when I worked there. But yes the full timers get benefits. Personally I try and shop at places which pay at least sick leave, which two of the stores here do pay.
With the instacart do they pick the store they shop at or do the customers?
What if your household requires 1500 a month for food, some are advocating 30% tips, which is 500 a month, which would be 350 over 10%; that’s not remotely feasible for a lot of people.
