Instacart along with many other grocery and delivery pick-up services has changed the lives and how we shop as well as providing those who use the service as customers from time-starved individuals, seniors and those with mobility issues or just your urban dwelling remote professional seeking convenience to order groceries and goods from local stores and in turn this created shoppers who are independent contractors, predominantly Women and themselves most likely local and parent/carers looking for a side-hustle or full-time gig while and Men looking for extra “gig” work or a low-barrier entry workforce to join.
Unfortunately Instacart hasn’t yet launched an equivalent annual insight release similar to Spotify Wrapped as having a year-end review feature that shows you your personal data and shopping habits would be an analytical treat imagine seeing how much milk you had brought back home as a Father and knowing your favourite days of the week to order. It would be grand.
Many know I happen to not drive and there are many reasons for this though I am capable of driving it certainly isn’t safe for me to be behind the wheel. On one hand I suffer from intense migraines that can leave me vision impaired and the other is being prone to being essentially vanishing at any period of time against my will and re-appearing moments later. Not a good idea when behind a wheel.
Until that day though I decided to take a look down memory lane.
Highlighting not this year but from my first Order from Instacart on record to a more current one and the stories behind some of those orders.
My very first order was delivered by a Karen and I remember it well.
In 2018 I was invited to try Instacart from the Instacart team it was slowly rolling out in Canada and my very pregnant Partner was intrigued by the idea of grocery delivery having just got accustomed to Uber Eats she presumed it would be similar. I myself had watched Instacart’s growth and purchase of Unata but was unclear how this system would work.
Not too different from today actually at the time and while the order went well Karen couldn’t quite find our address and when she did she wanted us to come out and collect the order (this was before leave at the door). I remember tipping her cash in addition to the app.
Skip to 2021 and we’d found the app quite useful for those days to cover a few items we perhaps missed on the weekend grocery shop, a little laundry here, some dishwasher tablets there as evident in Aug 2021. During some personal issue times I myself had realised that I could have orders delivered to a hotel during June of the same year and in 2024 a little after my Mothers funeral coinciding with my birthday which I was unable to attend I didn’t feel like heading to the store so I simply had food delivered.
2024 an early 2025 I recall having Cat & Dog food delivered in a pinch and Milk and creamers constantly running out no matter how much was stocked. I still don’t understand. I remember when buying milk didn’t make my wince.
Looking back on orders explains a journey in itself. In my case there’s a period of orders before my Daughters birthday at our old home and then new orders at a new location. Driving all the way to Walmart and forgetting to get a new vacuum only to just order it off Instacart and having “pads” & ice cream delivered for the lady of the house when the car was kaput.
One could say an order history is a timeline of a person’s life and while this doesn’t cover at all every order made between my own personal and Family orders it does give a glimpse.
Now if we saw my Uber Eats orders and Uber Ride History that would tell even more.
What does your order history say about you?
Regards,
Alexander / Zenchi
