My Scariest Grocery Store Trip

I thought signing up for Instacart would be simple.

After my car accident, our family finances took a hit. I wasn't able to simply go back to work and carry on like nothing had happened, but I still wanted to contribute where I could.

So I started looking for something that would work within my limitations and unpredictable days.

Instacart seemed like it might be the answer.

There was no fixed schedule. I could work when I felt capable of working, make a little extra money to help with the bills, and hopefully take a little pressure off my husband.

What I didn't expect was that my first grocery order would turn into one of the most stressful things I'd done in a long time.

Sitting in a Publix parking lot waiting for my first order

My husband was working on his car, so while I waited for him, I decided to sit in the Publix parking lot and see if I could get my first order.

I sat there for about five minutes before deciding I might as well go inside and use the restroom.

While I was there, I walked around the store trying to familiarize myself with where everything was. If I was going to shop for other people, I figured I should at least know where things were.

No orders.

So I went back to my car.

Another five minutes passed.

Then—pop.

An order appeared.

I quickly accepted it.

And then... nothing.

It disappeared.

For a moment, I panicked.

How was I supposed to find the order? Did I just mess something up? Was I already doing this wrong?

I quickly Googled it and discovered that someone had probably grabbed the order before I did because of cellular lag.

Okay.

I could handle that.

A few minutes later, another order popped up.

I accepted it.

Gone.

Again.

At this point, I started getting discouraged.

I remember thinking, Is this really how this works? Am I going to sit in a parking lot like a lot lizard waiting for orders while competing with everyone else around me?

This didn't seem practical at all.

I started playing around with the settings and looking at the map. I could see nearby stores, and after a few minutes, another order appeared.

This one was for Aldi.

I quickly accepted it, fully expecting it to disappear too.

But this time, it didn't.

Instead, the app took me to the next step.

I had an order.

I was actually going grocery shopping for someone.

And that's when I realized I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

Wait... Aldi doesn't use bags.

I headed over to Aldi, clicked "Start Shopping," and immediately thought:

Oh no.

Aldi doesn't use bags.

A million questions started running through my head.

Was I supposed to buy bags?

Was I supposed to leave their groceries sitting loose on their doorstep?

Should I go to the dollar store and buy cheap bags and give them away?

Why did I do this?

I quickly searched online to find out how Instacart shoppers handled Aldi orders.

The answer was simple: shoppers could purchase paper bags on the customer's order.

Okay.

One problem solved.

I nervously got out of my car and headed into the store.

Then I realized something else.

I probably needed a cart.

Back to the car I went to get a quarter.

Then back into the store.

I clicked "Start Shopping" and took a deep breath.

Here we go.

My first grocery order

The first item was fruit snacks.

Thankfully, I'd been to Aldi several times before, so I wasn't completely unfamiliar with the store.

I found the fruit snacks.

Scanned them.

Into the cart.

Next: pasta.

Found it.

Scanned it.

Into the cart.

Next: juice.

I headed to the refrigerated section, found the requested juice, checked the dates, scanned it and put it in the cart.

Okay.

This wasn't so bad.

Then came the eggs.

I actually felt like an expert shopping for eggs.

I've always opened cartons when I shop for myself to check for cracked eggs and thin shells. So I checked them, checked the date and put them carefully into the cart.

Next was Parmesan cheese.

I headed over to the cheese section.

And stopped.

Why are there so many cheeses?

I couldn't find the one she wanted.

I started looking more carefully.

Please have it. Please have it.

I finally spotted the bag.

Yes!

I grabbed it and held it up next to the picture on my phone.

Wait.

This said grated.

She wanted shredded.

Back into the cheese section I went.

I started searching through the bags again.

And then I found it.

The last one.

Yes!

At that point, I was reminded of something else.

I'd ordered groceries through Instacart myself before. We have some special dietary needs, and I'd once had a shopper looking for ingredients I needed for a meal.

One of the important ingredients was out of stock.

I remember how disappointing that was.

Now I was on the other side of the transaction.

Suddenly, I understood just how much responsibility there was in something that normally feels so simple.

I wasn't buying groceries for myself.

Someone was counting on me to get the things they had ordered.

Of course the sparkling water was out of stock.

I was almost finished.

All I had left was sparkling water.

I headed toward the last aisle and immediately saw the problem.

There were barely any left.

Please have her flavor.

Of course they didn't.

I asked an employee if there were more in the back.

There weren't.

So I opened the chat with the customer.

I started typing in the flavors they did have when the app gave me a little bit of unexpected relief.

It said that if an item was out of stock, the customer had a suggested replacement.

Whew.

I clicked "This item is out of stock."

The suggested replacement appeared.

I headed over to that section.

And there it was.

Plenty of them.

Perfect.

I had survived my first out-of-stock item.

Now it was time to check out.

The paper bag dilemma

I looked at everything in my cart and thought I could probably fit it all into one paper bag.

But should I?

Would the customer want the cold items separated from the pantry items?

Would she be annoyed if everything was together?

Would two bags be better?

These are things you don't think about when you're shopping for yourself.

When you're shopping for someone else, suddenly every little decision feels important.

I took a breath and reminded myself:

Would I be okay with these things being together?

That became my guiding question.

At checkout, I told the cashier I was an Instacart shopper.

Then I admitted:

"I'm sorry. This is my first one, so I'm not really sure what I'm doing. Do people usually buy bags for their customers?"

He said yes.

Another question answered.

I grabbed a bag, handed it to him, paid with the PIN the app provided, and headed over to the bagging counter.

And then...

The groceries didn't fit nearly as nicely as I thought they would.

Grocery-store Tetris

Packing that bag was basically a game of Tetris.

Heavy things on the bottom.

Light things on top.

Keep the cold things together.

Protect the eggs.

Don't crush anything.

Don't put something weird next to something that might leak.

At one point, the only way I could make the juice and eggs fit was to put the eggs on their sides.

I stared at them.

Yikes.

I hoped this wasn't going to offend her or somehow cost me my tip.

But everything fit, so I went with it.

Then the app told me to take a picture of the receipt.

So I did.

And then I wondered:

Am I supposed to keep this? Give it to her? What do I do with it?

I was learning one tiny thing at a time.

I treated that grocery bag like a newborn baby

I finally made it back to my car.

The customer's house wasn't far away, but I wanted to keep everything cold for as long as possible.

So I put the paper grocery bag in a zippered insulated bag I had in the car and gently set it on the front seat with me where the air conditioning could reach them.

I even turned on the ventilated seat.

That grocery bag was basically my precious baby.

I drove carefully.

I followed the directions to her house.

And then my biggest pet peeve kicked in.

I've ordered plenty of things online over the years, and I've had around five packages delivered to the wrong house.

I was determined that I was NOT going to be that shopper.

I double-checked the street.

I checked the house number.

I checked the address again.

The Instacart app even showed me a picture from previous deliveries so I could see where the groceries were supposed to be placed.

I gently took the paper bag out of my car.

Set it on the ground.

Placed the sparkling water beside it.

Took the required picture.

And left.

Did I do everything right?

As I drove away, I felt relieved.

And nervous.

I kept wondering whether I'd done everything the way she wanted.

Then I looked at her profile.

She had more than 800 orders.

Oh boy.

This woman had seen it all.

I certainly couldn't be the worst shopper she'd ever had.

I've been on the other side of deliveries. I've had some that were wonderful and some that made me wonder what in the world happened.

I probably wasn't the best shopper she'd ever had.

But I had tried.

I had checked every item.

I had looked for the correct substitutions.

I had protected her groceries.

I had checked her address twice.

And I had cared.

Maybe that was enough.

What I learned from my first Instacart order

Looking back, what made that first order so scary wasn't really the grocery shopping.

It was not knowing what was going to happen next.

Every little decision felt like something I could get wrong.

And after everything that has happened since my accident, I think that's something I've had to relearn in a lot of areas of my life.

Sometimes you don't need to know how to do the whole thing.

You just need to figure out the next step.

Find the fruit snacks.

Then find the pasta.

Then find the juice.

Then the eggs.

Then the cheese.

One thing at a time.

So if you're brand new to Instacart and you're sitting in a parking lot wondering whether you've made a terrible decision, you're not alone.

Your first order might feel exciting.

It might feel overwhelming.

You will probably do something wrong.

You may stand in an aisle wondering why there are seventeen kinds of cheese.

You may have to Google something in the parking lot.

You may have to ask the cashier a question you think you should already know the answer to.

That's okay.

Take your time.

Breathe.

And when you aren't sure what to do, ask yourself:

What would I want if I were the customer?

Then do your best.

That's really all any of us can do.

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