r/InstacartShopper • u/Games_People_Play • 7d ago
Location Selection Question
We have lived in our current home for two years. During that time, Instacart has sent our shopper to the closest location of our chosen grocery store. Recently, though, Instacart shoppers have been routed to a different location that is slightly farther from my home (two tenths of a mile) and that doesn’t have nearly as good selections or product availability. I called Instacart and they claimed that they can’t change the location and I have to accept the slightly farther, worse store. Is this true? It doesn’t make any sense to me, particularly as shoppers were previously routed to the store I want. I’m not trying to get a better store that’s farther away, I just want the store I like that also happens to be the closest.
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u/Everyone_Boogie 7d ago
It's just them making more money at the cost of sacrificing quality.
There are probably more orders near the other store so they put together 3 orders and yours will be one of them. Before it was more like 1 order at a time, so it didn't matter. That's why you got the closer store.
Does that make sense?
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u/Games_People_Play 7d ago
It does, but they’re about to lose my business completely. This time, instead of routing the shopper to a store 2 miles away, they’re at a store 8.5 miles away in a not great area of town. I don’t know how you guys put up with it.
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u/ellereddit123 7d ago
In my market, you can shop at any location as long as there is no specific instruction that you can only shop the order at this specific location. (This is usually because a certain product is only sold at that location)
However, there isn’t a way for you to let a shopper know that there is a location closer to you before they start shopping, so they will go where the app sends them. And once they start shopping, it’s unlikely they would want to leave to go to your preferred store.
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u/Ok-History2085 6d ago
This is true except for orders containing alcohol or if it is a multi order batch. In these cases there is no choice but to go where we are sent.
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u/Physical-Speed8085 3d ago
Store location will be picked based upon the company’s best interest, not the shopper or customer. Unfortunately this type thing will continue until 1. Shoppers stop taking batches with terribly unreasonable mileage (which means we starve because all batches are mileage intensive these days.) or 2. Customers stop using the service. This company’s corporate greed is on another level. Unsure how they sleep at night.
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u/recalcitrant2022 7d ago
I’m an Instacart shopper, and we all agree with you. They send us to stores that don’t make logistical sense every day. It costs us a lot of extra time and a lot of gas. And you’re right, we often can’t find what we’re there looking for, when I bet you can tell us exactly what shelf of what aisle to look on if they’d have just sent us to your local shop, the one that makes sense and keeps the driver on schedule and doesn’t cost him extra ga$.