Polite Paradise

While signing in at work one morning I noticed a marrow had been left next to the signing-in book.

I didn't comment on it at the time, but my manager did when he arrived. Nobody ever admitted to knowing where this random marrow came from.

One of my shopping rules is to check which way the traffic is moving along the meat cases, left to right or right to left, and I'll just go with the flow. It's surprising to me that not everyone does that. Another rule I have for myself is to group similar items together to make it easier for whoever is bagging my groceries: paper goods, frozen food, cleaners, dairy, etc.

I set up my grocery order yesterday (Thursday) and it was delivered tonight (Friday) with no problems. I think it was a lady I've had before, but I'm not sure. I downloaded the Instacart app to my phone, since they were pushing it and I thought maybe I wouldn't be able to communicate with the shopper otherwise. It is weird how you can see exactly when they buy stuff, and watch them come towards you on a map! No thanks, I don't need to monitor it that closely.

The only minor thing was that I think the shopper called me on my phone when she got to my building--it was a number I didn't recognize, anyway. I bounced it without answering. I say in my profile that people should TEXT me if they are having problems with the door panel. One, I don't really like talking on the phone. Two, it requires me to answer an unfamiliar number. Three, if they're talking to me on my cell phone, calling my cell phone from the door panel at the same time won't work! Anyway, then I texted her to ask if she was having trouble getting in. She responded, but it was a pretty garbled text message, and then she was knocking on my door, so someone must have let her in. She had two little girls with her. I found her to be a little... abrupt. It's not a big deal at all, but most people are like, "Hi, how are you, have a good evening, etc.." She didn't really say much to me, just handed me my stuff. I even made a friendly comment about her two little "helpers" and she just kind of grunted. Better than being overly friendly like that guy I don't like, though! She was poking at her phone as soon as her hands were free so maybe she was checking on her next job or something. It can't be easy with the two kids in tow--they were maybe 4 and 6? Something like that. That slightly autonomous, but not really useful, age.

After she left, I went to my profile on Instacart. Although in the free-form instructions box, I put "panel by the door, text me, etc.," there's also a part they've added that says, "Contact method: No preference," or something like that. I'd like to change that to read "text," or at least see what the options are. But I couldn't find anywhere that I change that--even when I searched their Help section for the exact wording they used. I can change some "notifications," like if I want the shopper to call me before they check out, but there wasn't anything that matched up exactly. I have no idea what the shopper is able to see about me when, so maybe sometimes they think calling is okay.

Yeah, I'm so glad for the people who do this job for me, but I think it must be an awful job, at least potentially. I get a lot of females delivering to me and I wonder if they feel safer knowing that they are delivering to another female (at least going by my name). I don't feel unsafe but I do slightly prefer it when a female name comes up as the shopper. At least with something like pizza delivery, you have a store behind you, people you can call who know you, and they are probably also more aware of where you've gone and when you should be back. With something like Instacart you might be tracked, but there's no impetus for people in a call center halfway across the country to wonder why you're taking so long or if anything has happened to you.

I set up this week's order last night on Thursday, and it was delivered Friday evening with no problems. It was a girl I'd had several times before. Someone let her in so she didn't have to mess with the door panel. She had my groceries in two big, insulated bags--she was pulling out bag after bag of my groceries like the insulated bags were clown cars! She said they were really useful, and commented that recently she had carried a case of water up three flights of stairs! At least my building has an elevator. Presumably you can see what sort of thing the person has ordered before you agree to pick it up, but you would have no way of knowing whether their building has an elevator, or potentially even what floor they're on, before making your decision.

However earlier this week I had a minor inconvenience with an Amazon delivery person. They were supposed to deliver a package to me Thursday, but texted that they couldn't figure out how to get into the building. I want my stuff, obviously, but at a certain point I kind of feel like this shouldn't be my problem--companies like FedEx and UPS manage to get in, as I think they have an official agreement with the landlord who has given them a fob or code. Hopefully the landlord is not going to give that to just any random individual who claims they deliver for Amazon as a contractor, literally a guy with some boxes in his car. And then he has trouble getting into the building, duh. It seems like a flawed system. If you want the package you send to end up with me, send it via someone reliable and reputable. Plus, I responded to the text right away, telling them to type in my code by the door panel, but there was no reply and they didn't try again that evening. Anyway, it was delivered Friday when they tried again--I never heard from them so I don't know how they got into the building finally. It's like, I don't really care what contortions a huge multi-national company has to go through behind the scenes to do the job they've contracted with me to do, if it's difficult or expensive for them or whatever. Your individual contractors are not going to save you money in the end, if they can't get stuff delivered and you have to refund people and lose them as customers.

Interesting piece. Doesn't sound like there's a whole lot of money to be made doing this kind of job, which isn't too surprising I guess. Quote below means she made as low as $8/hour one day, but as high as $21/hour on another.

Today, Gordon delivered eight orders in 10 hours and made $133, before extra bumps for heavy orders and good reviews. Today was OK. There was one day when she made $50 in six hours. That wasn't worth it. Gordon's best day's haul was $255 — when she worked almost 12 hours.

And some caveats to be considered:

Once, Gordon accidentally accepted a Costco batch with 81 cases of water.

Many delivery workers keep a mental track of locations that require climbing stairs, like apartments without elevators. On Gordon's mental list are also a house with the guy who greeted her in a robe, and an older man who pressured her into bringing his groceries inside and said he'd been tracking her.

UGH.