Welcome.
Do you know what you cleared after expenses? (Assuming you used the IRS mileage estimate for auto depreciation)
American capitalism at its finest. Instacart gets paid either way so they donāt give a fuck, they want all those orders picked up. So they batch them that way to make sure the no/low tippers still get their orders handled.
What should happen is their orders should sit until they adjust their tip upward. Meanwhile, those of us tipping well may end up waiting longer because our orders get batched, and the shoppers get forced to take the shitty orders to get the good ones.
Are there any alternative platforms youāve shopped for that treat you better?
In fairness, it is probably good for business to flatten out the pay this way. It is first come first serve to accept orders on the app, so the alternative (at least using the current model) would be people who are very good at accepting orders quickly getting even more of the pie than they already are.
To get a good order you have to be staring at the app constantly refreshing it and you have to accept it the second you see it. (Maybe there is way to rig the software to facilitate this, I dont know, but then again if you are adept enough to do this you can probably put those skills to much better use)
I havenāt shopped around much for better gigs. I tried a couple and this is by far the highest paying, most enjoyable one. This isnāt a career for me, just something to get me by right now. I am a career white collar worker, and I have to admit it is actually a fairly enjoyable to get out and do something (moderately) physical.
I will say in my estimation the majority of people ordering Instacart right now are just doing it because of the pandemic, so this setup is very temporary IMO. I think most of the people doing Instacart as a gig will need to be looking for something new very soon.
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No, this is my first year doing it, so I have never filled out a tax form for it before. In all honesty, I am not that organized financially, so I suspect I never will know. I donāt even know if Instacart will tell me what my miles are when they send out the 1099 or if I will have to guesstimate them myself when I do my taxes. I obviously am not keeping track on my own, although I probably should be.
Pretty sure somewhere between 90% and 120% of your miles are for instacart.
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Iām probably going to do delivery or curbside for the rest of my life. Lol at going back.
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I tipped 20% on a carry out yesterday and my wife lost it
I just tip everyone everywhere I go. Even ones who arenāt working. I am an amazing tipper.
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I just placed a $500 target order for a food bank. I chose the drive up option where they bring it out to the car. No place to tip online, I guess I could throw the person a $20 for bringing it out? Itās not all my money so Iām not really sure the best approach here.
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there is literally never a situation in which you want to tip where a cash tip will be frowned upon
I think this is only true if the % of professional/instacart shoppers is over a certain %. If there are 100 shoppers in a store and only 10-15 are instacart then I donāt think your statement is true because every time they go back into the store for a new order they are still being exposed to a new subset of 85-90 non-instacart shoppers
Not in charge of tipping here, but pretty sure my wife has been making it rain. Gives the doormen $20 every time they bring our grocery delivery up from the lobby.
20% up to 20$ for food delivery here. Not going higher than 20 bucks tho, so I guess Iām a scumbag.
I guess if youāre rich enough to live in a building with a doorman, $10 here and there isnāt much.
Honestly, itās insane to tip a doorman everytime you enter your own apartment building. Give him a little something for some special tasks (moving furniture being a good and surprising one). Then, something for the holidays.
My understanding was that doormen, etc. only expect a holiday tip but not for other tasks.
At least that seemed to be the standard amongst everyone I knew with doorman in NYC. Always gave a nice tip at Christmas time and didnāt seem to have any issues/complaints.
If they go above and beyond I could see tipping at other times, but donāt think necessary if part of their normal job. Only time I gave doorman $ outside Christmas was when he helped me hang some baby stuff in our ceiling, which clearly wasnāt part of his tasks and IIRC he did it after his shift ended.
I have no direct knowledge but Iād figure out birthdays and get to know them enough to take a personal interest. If they have a major life event, acknowledgement and potentially a gift is in order.
A couple of $50 gift cards and another $100 at Xmas? If they have a baby or something an actual small gift?
Maybe I have a movie romanticized idea of a doorman.