What it's really like to be a professional Instacart shopper

Instacart, a digital grocery delivery service, makes it easy to shop for food without ever leaving your apartment. 

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But what happens between submitting your order online and your doorbell ringing?

We decided to find out and spent a morning shadowing an Instacart shopper at a Whole Foods in New York City. 

Turns out, a lot of time and effort goes into getting your grocery order just right and delivered to your door in under an hour. 

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Instacart shoppers wander the store using this app as a shopping list. Madison Malone Kircher/Tech Insider

Keep reading to find out what it's like to be an Instacart shopper. 

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It was a cold, rainy morning when I headed to the Whole Foods Market in the Bowery of New York City.

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Inside, I met up with Sam Cruz, the Instacart shopper I'd be shadowing for the morning.

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Cruz, 31, says Whole Foods is like his office — he typically works there from about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and fills about ten grocery orders each day. Shoppers earn a base salary that starts around $15-an-hour.

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Madison Malone Kircher/Tech Insider

Orders come in on through the Instacart app.

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This morning, Cruz was filling a 44-item order. Each item was listed on the app and Cruz checks them off as he adds them to the cart.

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The app sets a time limit at a little over an hour to complete the order.

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While he shopped, Cruz told me he enjoys the "odd job feel" of being a professional grocery shopper.

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If an item is not available, Instacart shoppers can check with the customer and work together to replace it with something similar.

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Here, Cruz swapped American cheese for Provolone and texted the customer to let them know. In this case, the customer was cool with the switch, but they are always allowed to opt out.

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As a tip for those who still do their grocery shopping themselves, Cruz recommends itemizing your grocery shopping list to speed up the process.

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I was really impressed at how quickly Cruz found things, like this specific brand of cold brew coffee a customer had requested.

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Still, some specialty items can be trickier for a shopper to track down in a hurry.

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It took some time for Cruz to track down these olives stuffed with peppers.

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When he can't find an item, Cruz consults the Whole Foods staff. He didn't have much luck finding freeze-dried, instant coffee. Whole Foods didn't end up carrying the brand the customer wanted.

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The woman on the right might look like your average grocery store patron, but she's actually an Instacart shopper as well. There were about 8 in the store while I was there.

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Cruz says sensible shoes are a must for his job. I wore heels. After an hour of following him around, I started to regret it.

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The second-to-last item on the customer's list was olive oil.

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Madison Malone Kircher/Tech Insider

And green juice, which Cruz hustled through the store to find.

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Once we finished finding the last few items, it was time to check out. I was confused when Cruz walked right past the store cashiers.

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Here's a look.

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Before the groceries can be delivered, orders have to be labeled so nothing gets switched around by mistake.

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Sometimes Instacart shoppers will fill orders hours before they need to be delivered, so they'll hold them in this giant refrigerator.

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While dry goods wait on these shelves.

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Finally, a delivery person, or "walker," as Instacart calls them, will take the orders to the customer. This particular walker told me he delivers anywhere around nine orders each day and sometimes travels up to a mile for each order.

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Madison Malone Kircher/Tech Insider

Whether you're a shopper or a walker, working at Instacart is a very physical job. I was tired after just an hour. Later that day when I considered hitting up the grocery store on my way home from work, I ordered take-out instead.

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