Lame title but let me explain,

I had Uber eats and was a driver, and I didn’t really like it but at the same time I had applied for Instacart and I’m in the process of signing up for that.

I live in a small town off the #1 in Canada and it takes about 25-30 minutes to get into the city on a good day. My town is also full of elderly, and considering people have to travel so much to get into the city, they make a day out of travelling down there.

I want to advertise the fact that I am an Instacart delivery person who is willing to go into the city to pick up groceries, prescriptions, whatever it may be. So my question is: does Instacart create batches for drivers to pick up in proximity to the store, or proximity to the person?

In other terms, will I need to actually be on the road near these stores for a chance to pick them up? Or can I stay in my home, keep the app running, and check every few minutes to see if anyone from my town requested something?

  • Shoh@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    11 months ago

    Just for the record, I haven’t done Instacart, and my most recent experience with DD was a little over two years ago so I’m unsure if it’s still done in the same way.

    When I did DD it would pull up a map in the app to show me hotspots that were getting high volume of orders in the town/city I was in. I drove to those hot spots, and parked in one of the parking lots in the area until I received an order. It would give me a pop-up when an order was available for me that only said the location to pick the order up, distance I would drive, the pay for that order and ask if I wanted to accept it. Nobody was able to request me as a Dasher, the app would just ask me if I wanted an order. If I said no it went to the next Dasher to ask if they wanted it. I’m assuming that Instacart is the same way. I believe Instacart is done in a similar way but with groceries instead of food.

    • Icedrous@sh.itjust.worksOP
      2·
      11 months ago

      Uber Eats was like that too, and I just worked for them a few weeks ago

      So theoretically, if I want to help out my community, I’d have to sit in parking lots at a store?

      • Shoh@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        11 months ago

        From my admittedly limited understanding if you wanted to help the community via Instacart and the alternatives, yes. You’ll get the occasional order while driving to a hotspot, but most of your time will be the spent the same way as it was with UberEats. Sitting in parking lots waiting for an order to pop-up.

        If you’re not hurting for money, and you’re just looking to help I’ll always recommend reaching out to some of the local volunteer groups in your area. In my local area they’re almost always hurting for volunteers, and they’re always thankful when someone shows up

  • weariedfae@lemmy.world
    4·
    11 months ago

    I don’t have a lot of information about this but in the Before Times I worked with a couple of people who operated a side business of getting groceries and running errands for housebound or elderly people. They didn’t advertise, it was word of mouth, but it is something you could consider.

    You could put up flyers and put them in areas that your target demographic hangs out (VFW, senior center, the grocery store bulletin board). Use large, bold font.

    The way they handled it required more personal interaction (going over receipts with someone vs. their shopping list) but once they had a few regulars it was a fine business. It didn’t make much but I think they wanted it to be closer to a service than a massive money maker.

    Just something to consider if you feel the new apps (which can be a barrier to the elderly) aren’t meeting your needs.