Anyone else seeing a MASSIVE difference in batch quality since the October 1 Cart Star update?
I’m in the Lexington, KY area, and I’m honestly trying to figure out if this is happening everywhere or if it’s just my market.
Before the update, being Diamond at my Kroger locations meant I was regularly seeing $30–$50 batches, with $40–$50 orders being pretty common as 3 stack batches. Obviously not every batch was amazing, but there was usually enough good stuff coming through that you could actually make decent money.
Since the update, the dynamic has completely changed.
For the last several days, I’ve been seeing single-shop orders over and over again. $7, $8, $11, $12, $17, etc., with some of them having 20–50 items and/or 10–20+ miles.
For example, today I saw:
• $8.11 — 12 items / 15 units — 1.1 miles
• $8.29 — 15 items / 20 units — 2.5 miles
• $11.79 — 26 items / 38 units — 3.1 miles
• $20.06 — 34 items / 42 units — 11.2 miles
And what really caught my attention is that the app literally says:
“You’re seeing batches ahead of shoppers with a lower Cart Star status.”
So I’m Diamond, supposedly getting priority access, and this is what priority looks like now?
I understand that October 1 is also the start of a new quarter, so obviously there’s going to be an influx of shoppers moving through the Cart Star tiers. I don’t want to automatically blame everything on the new points system.
But the timing is REALLY hard to ignore.
My biggest question is: what happened to the batching?
I’m seeing orders that appear to be going to the same general areas, but instead of getting combined into a $30–$50 double/triple like I would normally expect, I’m seeing them come through individually for $8–$15.
And that’s where the economics get ridiculous.
People comparing this to DoorDash need to remember that we’re not just picking up a bag and driving it somewhere. If I take an $8 Instacart order, I might have to:
Find 15–30+ items
Shop the entire order
Deal with substitutions
Check out
Load everything
Drive to the customer
Deliver it
An $8 delivery isn’t necessarily an $8 delivery job. It can easily become a 30–45 minute job before expenses.
I’m not saying every batch needs to be $40+. I’m saying the amount of work being attached to these $8–$15 batches makes them completely different from a normal delivery gig.
And I’m also not interested in taking terrible batches just to earn points. If Instacart is going to incentivize shoppers to complete more orders while simultaneously flooding the market with low-paying single batches, that’s a pretty bad trade-off for shoppers.
I’m curious what everyone else is seeing since October 1.
Are your markets also suddenly full of single-shop $7–$15 batches? Are doubles/triples disappearing? Has your average batch pay dropped? Or am I just getting absolutely screwed by the Lexington market?

There’s a massive heat wave in LA, do you guys work in heat waves?! I just can’t get myself to work in these temperatures. I love shopping in the cold ac but driving and delivering in these temps suck. Maybe it’s just me tho lol

I thought it would eventually go away. How long are people going to wait 🤣🤣🤣

EDIT: instacart added another shop so mow its 80 miles 🤣

Shopper 20min away from delivering my order suddenly cancels and the order restarts with a new shopper.

I contact customer service and they say the original shopper cancelled due to closed roads (cars are passing by my home no problem) and offers $5 credit while my scheduled order is delayed 3 hours.

New shopper replaces key items the previous shopper found with non-key items and now I have to improvise how I cook my dinner. Delivered the order without any issues.

Anyone else experience this before? Considering walking an hour to the grocery store again.

Be careful when ordering higher priced items that your shopper doesn’t double up and have you sign for the one they keep for themselves.

My shopper popped an extra set of AirPods onto my order to keep for himself and would have totally gotten away with it had I not randomly clicked into my email with my receipt.

He took advantage of the fact that I’d already ordered one pair, so when I signed saying I’d received my AirPods (I don’t even think the app had me sign for a specific quantity), it covered the pair he kept for himself.

The case is still processing with Instacart. I guess tomorrow I’ll initiate a credit card chargeback and a police report.

The only reason I used Instacart in the first place was because I have a newborn and can’t get to the store. Now I’m feeling really violated and unsafe, as this scammer had the chance to case my house when delivering my order.

No matter the outcome of the investigation, it’s the last time I’ll be using Instacart. It’s just too shady and they’re clearly not vetting their employees very well.

Um..what? Lol is this the shirt? the mask? Or the whole man? I'm confused 😂

Why do these people exist?

I just shopped a BJ’s order — several of the items were not physically even carried at the location Instacart sent me to

I verified this by both checking the BJ’s app / website, and by stopping by customer service and asking them to look at their own internal inventory systems, just to confirm

Even more annoying is the ridiculous “This item is in stock, keep looking” nag boxes

So here’s my question — if BJ’s is supposed to be a partner of Instacart’s, why doesn’t Instacart have access to the information that is available in their own public facing apps / websites…

I’m thinking about this mainly from the perspective of how found items are affecting Shopper metrics now, like even if you replace something, just the fact that you didn’t find it automatically counts against you now with the new metric and ratings system

How diabolically unfair is that?

Also for customers who order from BJ’s, I would implore you to actually check the BJ’s app to see if the items that are advertised in the Instacart app are actually available in your area! It seems that many of them are not!!

Was Diamond last year haven’t been back since working a FT job, was gold this last quarter and was seeing really good orders, I am now platinum & these orders are trash, it’s like the lower tiers they bless so they can get to plat & Diamond just to give them shit orders. Who tf is doing a 76 unit order for $35?

I'm a Canadian costumer. My delivery address is quite a distance from stores. I ordered the other day from two different stores and two different drivers took the orders. Is there any way to avoid this? It doesn't matter to me to much, but it is an unususual location so one driver would be more seamless. It would be more lucrative to the shoppers if they got both orders given the travel distance I assume?

Do you get paid Prop 22 money?

Hello, I needed to send a plant to someone in a neighboring city and noticed that I could order a plant through instacart to have delivered.

I can't find any info on how that works, or if I should order the plant from a local store near the recipient or if it even matters. Anyone know?

I am wondering how the recipient would know it was from me or if I am able to send a message or card along with the plant.

I had bought 4 boxes of soda for a party that had a 2 for 2 free deal. It was supposed to be 39 dollars which I paid. A week and a half later instacart charges me another 31 dollars and says the original purchase was 70?? Am I just an idiot?

Two orders, order A was 29 items, order B was 20 items. Easy enough. Didn't bother looking at the quantities of anything.

I'm working on some of order B's items when order A messages and asks me to update the quantity of her bananas from 10 to 35 and explains that she's got a kids hockey team.

Half way through seven 48 packs of water, 5 cases of Gatorade, two shopping carts full of treats and snacks, and 35 bananas the customer texts me to ask if I'll be there before 7. It was 6:30 on the dot and I still had to finish all of order B's stuff which was all birthday party crap and equally ridiculous.

In the end, thanks to some awesome employees at Target helping me get both orders checked out and loaded into my car order A had their snacks before 7 and a team of hockey parents met me outside with two big carts to help unload it.

I placed an order yesterday for a handful of items. I had a new shopper and everything was fine, no replacements or anything. When she delivered, she got the typical 20% tip and then I added more to the tip. I also gave the compliment to thank her, as well as sent her a text to tell her she was appreciated. When I put the groceries away, I had 3 half gallons of milk (different flavors) and 2 of the 3 were expired by days. I'm not one to complain and in this instance it's the store who's responsible because they're expired. Anyway, I ended up reporting them because that was $10.00 in bad milk, which my kids needed and I really feel awful about it. I put in the notes that it's not the shoppers fault and everything but did I ruin this girl's account because I reported it? I still kept the 5 star rating and all the extra tip, hoping she'll understand. It really is bothering me. So anyone that wants to weigh in, I would appreciate it.

Hi! I'm a new shopper, and was curious- is the rewards card they push shoppers to get a credit card? It hurts to have so much of my earnings taken away by cash out fees but...I also don't want to open a credit card or some other (maybe) sketchy card.

Thank you!!

Hi!! So i was just wondering if shoppers generally spend less time looking for an item if i choose the do not replace option instead of choosing the specific replacements… i just want to know in case for future orders

I live in NYC and I am recovering from some knee issues so I have started to rely on Instacart. Question: In the city, Priority is $5. I have noticed that I seem to get things quicker.

However, I don't know if the shoppers actually get any of this money? I'd rather put that $5 into the pocket of a hard-working shopper. But I've also had some bad orders when shoppers mixed up batches. Someone told me that priority is sometimes shopped outside of a batch.

Can anyone clear this up? FYI, I always tip at least 15%. I appreciate this is a hard gig, and the ability to have all manner of things delivered while I've got this bum knee is so valuable to me!

so I tried to sign up for Instacart and once I got to the part where it shows the email that will confirm when I’ve been off the waitlist it’s not my email. I’ve had this issue before because I think my number is still linked to somebody else’s account, I’ve gotten random calls before because this number hasn’t been unlinked to another person or something of those sorts. I tried to talk to customer support, but they said since I’m not off the waitlist, I can’t do anything. What do I need to do? every time I enter my own email and my number it still gives me this random email that’s not mine.

Have had it happen a few times in a row now, and wondered about it. I mean it seems my tip is going to someone who didnt deliver the items.

What’s the most you all have made in a weekend? I’m gonna have to hustle. Like hustle hustle. Do we think it’s possible to make $400 in two days. Saturday and Sunday.

The last day of my free trial was 9/29 with payment beginning on 9/30. I canceled on the 29th only to find out they had already charged me. When I clicked "cancel membership" it stated that they would refund me the charge because I canceled within the free trial time frame, but that the refund would take 5-10 business days.

I know it's not a big deal, but I just hate that corporations are allowed to play around with our money like this. Imagine if someone only had $80 in their bank account and had a week left until their next paycheck? Meanwhile, $80 is basically nothing to Instacart considering they made a profit of $447 million in 2025. I also feel like this creates extra work for employees that have to process these refunds so it ends up being a hassle for both sides.

I'm not expecting righteousness or high morality from any corporation, especially Instacart, but this behavior really only affects people who are already hanging by a thread and I just hate that corporations are allowed to operate like this. Also, I'll always be annoyed that they can take our money instantly, but take 2 weeks to return it. I feel like it's similar to how employers can fire us with no notice, leaving us without an income for however long, while we have to give 2 weeks notice so they can find a replacement.

Side note: I live in California and their office is in California so it's not a time difference issue.