10 Items or Less: Do Your Best for Your Customers

The Instacart community is as diverse as the items in the grocery store — every day, tens of thousands of individuals shop, deliver, and become an extension of people’s households. We want to share this community’s stories, highlighting Instacart shoppers, shift leads, and site managers all across North America. 10 Items or Less is a series featuring just some of the amazing members of the Instacart community, sharing their unique experiences and secret sauce with the world.

1. What’s your name and where are you from? My name is Carey, and I am from Burlingame, California.
2. How long have you been shopping with Instacart, and in what roles? I started shopping as a full-service shopper in November 2020.
3. Why did you decide to start shopping with Instacart? I wanted a way to make some extra money, with flexibility to work when my schedule allows.
4. What’s your favorite thing about shopping with Instacart? I love shopping for people. To know that I am helping them out in this small way is rewarding to me.
5. What 3 items are always in your personal shopping cart? Avocado, organic fruits and veggies, and kombucha.
6. What’s a fun fact that would surprise us about you? I love to play the handbells!
7. What’s a shopping tip that a lot of people might not know (your “secret sauce”)? Shop like you are shopping for yourselves. Always pick the freshest and best produce, and tell your customer when something doesn’t look great. Communicate, communicate, communicate!
8. What’s your “side dish” — a hobby, a hidden talent, another job you do on the side? Shopping with Instacart is my “side job.” When I’m not shopping, I prepare taxes.
9. What’s one piece of guidance or encouragement you would give to the shopper community? Always try to communicate, by phone or by text if you need to replace, or if something doesn’t look good. I have noticed some people don’t get texts that we send. If it doesn’t say “read” on the bottom of the text, your customer likely hasn’t seen it. In this case, I will call. People often really like a phone call because it shows them you care about their order. I have had several customers say that I was the first shopper that ever called them.
10. Anything else you want to share with the shopper community? Do your best for your customers. Remember, it’s about them!

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Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.