An Instacart Shopper Takes an Order for 60 Boxes of 'Pot Ready' Spaghetti From Food Lion but They Don't Have it

An Instacart shopper takes on an unusual order to pick up a lot of spaghetti from Food Lion, but their shelves are bare for the particular type of spaghetti.

Spaghetti tied in a bundle

One Instacart shopper had to learn the hard way when he took a strange order, not knowing if it was a joke or for real.

TikToker Posts a Video About an Experience

TikToker @instacartier1 

An Instacart shopper documented his experience on TikTok after taking an unusually large order of spaghetti for a customer to be picked up from Food Lion.

User @instacartier1 posted in a TikTok video that the order would require him to drive 16 miles to the grocery store, and he would earn $16.69 batch earnings before a tip.

According to Daily Dot, the instacart shopper was skeptical about the order, and they didn't initially respond to his communications to get more information.

He then called Food Lion to ask them to start preparing the 60 boxes of spaghetti, but they informed him of the bad news: They didn't get a delivery truck in that day, and he would have to accept whatever they had on the shelves.

So he drove to Food Lion, and the worst-case scenario happened.

Food Lion Was Out of the 'Pot Ready' Spaghetti

He said:

“So I get there, and there’s not a single box on the shelf. So I message this woman, and I’m like ‘Hey, there’s none of these boxes here. Do you want Mueller’s [brand]? It’s 50 cents more a box,’ and she goes, ‘Well, is it pot ready?”’

The Instacart shopper then has to ask, "What is pot-ready spaghetti?"

He does a search online and finds out from retailer H-E-B online that pot-ready spaghetti is shorter and fits within a pot without having to break the pasta.

Pot-ready spaghetti is "half of the length of standard spaghetti," but only Mueller brand was available, and it was not "pot ready."

He decided to not buy any pasta and posted a video about it on 19 August 2024.

He also shared that there was a second order along this route, and the customer ended up tipping him $8.39 for a different grocery order.

Do you think Instacart shoppers should get tipped for their time, even if the store does not have the groceries?

Rip Off: Customer Learns She Paid a $77 Convenience Upcharge After Ordering LobLaws Groceries Using Instacart Delivery Service

An Instacart customer orders groceries from Loblaws and finds out the reality of using a delivery service versus going to the grocery store herself. She posted the cold reality in a TikTok video after discovering her delivery driver accidentally left the real grocery receipt in her bag.

credit: @sophiakokolakis on TikTok 

Sophia Kokolakis found out that she is paying way more to order her groceries through Instacart and have them delivered, thanks to the upcharge, and that doesn't even include the tip.

She posted a video to TikTok on 29 September 2023 after she received her groceries from Instacart, and the reality sets in that she just got ripped off.

TikTok Video: Instacart is Making Serious Money with Upcharge for Convenience

In the TikTok video, she says:

"This is honestly the first time that an Instacart delivery person has left the receipt in the bag and my total was $221 and I paid $298 on Instacart...from Loblaws. Damn." -Sophia Kokolakis

She paid about $77 more to Instacart for the convenience.

The video can be seen below.

TikTok video credit: @sophiakokolakis on TikTok 

Comments on the Video

Users weigh in on the video Sophia posted to TikTok. Here's what they said:

• User 'Cat Officially Cat' says, "That's the price of convenience."

• User 'TikTokMadeMeSayThat' gives a free tip, saying, "just order through Loblaws website itself. They use DoorDash to deliver and you don't pay any upcharges." (word 'upcharges' corrected in comment)
• User 'John C' says, "It clearly tells you on the app whether or not you're going to pay in-store prices or not, depending on what store you choose."
• User 'Wiara953 says, "I put stuff in my Instacart from Aldi's and went to the store myself and checked the prices. They tax the stuff like crazy."

Kate Witmer (Instacart shopper) said:

"As an Instacart shopper, I get sticker shock when I see the price the customer is paying vs. what the store is actually charging."

Jenny (Instacart shopper) said:

"We're supposed to keep the receipt for 30 days per our contract. The price mark up is insane though. Instacart makes money on every item you buy."

Mia (Instacart shopper) said:

"Do you live in the states? In Canada, we have to leave the receipt."

Boopie Jones (former Instacart shopper) said:

"During the brief moment I shopped for them is when I realized they were scamming customers & underpaying shoppers. Def left the receipt in their bag."

Readers, it's time for you to share your thoughts on the subject:

Do you think that customers would tip less or stop using the service if they found out how much Instacart is charging people for convenience?

iPhone App Review: Field Agent

Field Agent App icon

Field Agent App on iPhone

Field Agent is a great iPhone app to have, but it requires one major thing: TIME.

Once you download the app, you click on the orange app icon with a white tie. The Field Agent app will launch and then load jobs for your area.

I have noticed that many new jobs are populated and ready for Saturday.

Field Agent Experience:

After getting a list of jobs on the iPhone app, I decided to go down to Publix (grocery store) and attempt to complete some of the many assignments. When you select an assignment, it will give you an abbreviated title for the Product, and then will provide a suggested location for the product in the description area.

Field Agent App Job listings

I found that many jobs were being added on this Saturday morning. Many jobs would only last for a few minutes and then it would disappear, and new jobs would populate.

I didn’t accept the jobs unless I knew that I could complete the assignment. The app warns that it may be difficult to cancel the job once accepted, but it is quite easy to cancel a job assignment. The only downside may be that it hurts your agent completion score in the app.

Conclusion:

What I found using the Field Agent app for specific grocery stores is that the items you are searching for may not be found at your local store. I was searching for items like cheese and beef jerky, and the UPC codes before and after this particular UPC were there, but the 10-digit UPC code was not in stock. That was frustrating.

Then, when I actually found one that was in stock, the bottled water did not list the ingredients or allergy warnings, which were required photos.

So the one item that was in stock, I took two pictures: one of the UPC, and one of the fronts of the package. The assignment required 4 pictures, including the allergy warning, and ingredient listing.

I submitted this assignment, and gave this explanation, but later received an email from Field Agent saying that my submission was denied.

I searched for at least 10 products in the job section, successfully found one, and that one submission was denied. This turned out to be quite a frustrating attempt to complete jobs with Field Agent.

But note that I have successfully completed one Field Agent assignment, taking a photo of the soft drink section at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart tasks seem to be easier to accomplish.

The Field Agent iPhone App sounds cool in theory, but not all jobs are easy to find in grocery stores, and for an hour’s worth of time, you may only accomplish one task for $6.50.

Are you worth more than $6.50 an hour?

The reality is that Field Agent is not an easy way to make money. Don't expect to make a living off of it, and don't expect consistent job assignments. Cool app, but not an income reality.

Here is the bottom line on Field Agent. In theory, its a great app. It would be cool if a person could actually make a little money from it. The sad reality is that Field Agent often makes requirements for a completion that are impossible. You end up wasting your time. Too many pictures are rejected. They tell you to go to a location and take a picture of a display that is non-existent. Then you get the dreaded email from the support worker to your email saying they reject your submission because the picture isn't what they wanted. They need to let you take several pictures and they pick what they want.

Field Agent has wasted my time on several occasions when I though I would actually get a completion.