In the transition from peak COVID quarantine to normal life, my friend mentioned how she started Instacarting to make some extra money. She explained the concept as Uber Eats for grocery shopping: people buying other people’s groceries and delivering it to them. Intrigued by the appeal of making money, and even more so by the potential to cure my boredom, I “applied” for the job. I use the word “applied” loosely because it was more of a sign-up than an application.
I was too nervous to do my first delivery by myself so my mom graciously agreed to come along and we figured it out together. We found it to be almost like a game: going around the grocery store, finding the items on the list, and scanning barcodes. We became obsessed with the game in a way. It was addictive to open the app and try to find an order that paid the most money for the shortest delivery distance or least amount of items. When we found out Instacart timed us on the average length of time it takes to find each item, our competitive nature kicked in. We cheated the system a little bit and began to divide and conquer to find the items on our grocery lists. I would start in produce and my mom would go straight to the deli. We would reconvene and then split up again. It was a bit of a thrill. Grocery shopping isn’t a chore when you do it for other people.
Over time, it became my mom, not me, asking if we could go Instacarting together. When we were already out, she was always the one saying “let’s do one more” when I was ready to go home. I internally questioned why she was so eager. I mean I was the one making money, she was just coming along for the ride. It was fun, sure, but was it really more fun than something else she could do with her time? Was she so altruistic that she really just wanted to help me out in making some money? I think both of those are partially true, but I soon realized it was because of the time we got to spend together.
I, too, am grateful for all the time Instacarting gives us to spend with each other. We have accumulated hours in the car together delivering orders. It has given me undisrupted time to talk to her about anything and everything. I’ve learned more details about when she lived in Alaska and how her family friends had a pet raccoon growing up. Despite my protests, we’ve listened to true crime podcasts together because she likes them so much. We have made many mistakes but have learned to lean on each other to problem-solve. Instacarting is something I have now come to look forward to when I go home for school breaks. I could, of course, go out Instacarting by myself, but it’s simply not the same without her.
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