Are Male Instacart Shoppers Really That Bad?

The internet has spoken: Male Instacart shoppers need to step up their game, and fast.

On X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, irritated Instacart shoppers share screen caps of conversations between them and their confused male Instacart shoppers. Such public complaints have been happening for years.

“Unfortunately, Schweppes Ginger Ale isn’t in stock. Would you like something else” one man asks his customers above a photo showing, yes, Schweppes ginger ale.

“Nah defund male Instacart shoppers immediately,” the poster wrote of the exchange.

Much of the time, people complain about head-scratching replacement items.

One irked customer tweeted about having a pound of cheese replaced with four gallons of milk. “Did he think I wanted to make it myself,” the person joked.

“My friend needed chicken stock and dude replaced it with chicken feet. CHICKEN FEET,” another person posted.

Then there was this beleaguered Instacart shopper who subbed in Bengay pain-relieving cream when he couldn’t locate Ben’s Original Butter & Garlic Flavored Ready Rice.

Some customers say they press the cancel button on their whole order the minute they see a man is going to do their shopping. Kita Bryant, a frequent Instacart user who lives in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, is among them.

“On a scale of one to 10, 10 being the best, I would say I’d give male shoppers a one,” Bryant told HuffPost. “In my experience, women get it right and I don’t have to tell them what to substitute with. They don’t pick out bad items and they actually listen.”

It’s true that in the past, when Bryant was still willing to use male shoppers, she had some real doozies: Once she had to cancel an entire order because the shopper could only find one out of the 10 items in the store. Another time, a man bought her molded fruit and expired food.

“I have good expectations for men and believe they can do whatever they put their minds to, I just think grocery shopping ain’t it,” Bryant joked. “Women are obsessed with the details more than men!”

Given the outsized opinion the internet seems to have about male Instacart shoppers, it’s only fair that they get a chance to reply. Though none of the men we spoke to for this piece said they’re poor shoppers, we were curious what they thought was going on with some of the other men on the app.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with men that makes them incapable of shopping well. So is it weaponized incompetence ― men feigning grocery aisle ignorance so they don’t have to do the legwork of finding a product? Is it just that sexist conditioning in our society has led to generations of men who aren’t properly taught to shop for groceries or cook?

Mike Romagnoli, an Instacart shopper in the Toronto, Canada area since 2019, offered an alternative reason: Some of the worst mistakes may have been made by new Instacart shoppers who’ve just arrived in the country and aren’t familiar with certain products, or even the language.

“I think that since the vast majority of shoppers are male, and the majority of those are new Canadians and American, it causes issues, especially when you message them and they don’t understand what you’re asking them or telling them,” he told HuffPost.

Stats seem to to back Romagnoli’s suggestion up, at least in big cities. A 2020 study out of University of California, Santa Cruz found that In San Francisco, nearly 80% of app-based ride-hailing and delivery service workers are people of color, and a majority are immigrants. In New York City, app-based food delivery workers are disproportionately male, young and from immigrant communities, according to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

“I have watched guys at checkout just refund a dozen items they couldn’t find instead of talking to a customer about possible replacements,” Romagnoli said.

Since there’s no aptitude test for Instacart shoppers, new recruits are pretty much thrown to the wolves ― in this case, annoyed customers at home.

Romagnoli gets people’s annoyance, though. When he’s placed his own orders on the app, he’s had men get sour cream instead of whipping cream, castor oil instead of olive oil and hand sanitizer instead of hand soap. He’s had guys not know what pulp means in orange juice or get beef roast instead of a steak.

Of course, some shoppers could just be lazy or have “grocery store blindness” ― that feeling of being unable to find something in a large store, even though in all probability, it’s there. Because he frequently shops for himself, Romagnoli doesn’t have such issues. His philosophy is, if he wouldn’t buy it for his family, then he doesn’t buy it for the customer.

“I’m not going to give them seven bad Roma tomatoes and three good ones just to get to the number for the batch,” he said.

While good and bad shoppers exist in equal measure, Romagnoli believes some of the issues with “bad” shoppers fall on the customer, too.

“I can’t count the number of times that I’ve messaged someone to get no reply for an hour and then they message me about replacements or other things when I am already pulling into their driveway,” he said. “The customer has to be attentive and on the ball, too. If not, you’re going to have a bad time.”

Byron, a Virginia man who asked to use his first name only for privacy, has been shopping for Instacart for three years.

He said eight out of 10 times he’s gotten a male shopper on his personal orders, they’ve been great. Byron thinks the issue with the others is that they rush to check out without asking about a replacement for an out-of-stock item. They could probably work on their customer service, too, he said.

“My advice for male shoppers would be to always send out an opening greeting when you’re about to start shopping,” he said. “I get a lot of customers who say their shoppers almost never do that. It helps remind the customer that you’re about to start shopping and helps build better relationships with the customer.”

Nelson, who also asked to use his first name only, has been working for Instacart in the Seattle area since 2022. He’s a diamond cart shopper, with a 4.96 out of 5 rating.

Like Romagnoli, Nelson said the best advice he can offer struggling Intstacart shoppers is to pretend you’re shopping for yourself: Try to find the best buy-by dates. Don’t pick out fruit that’s rotten. When an item is unavailable, sometimes the customer has a pre-approved backup that they want instead ― go with that.

Basically, he said, do everything you can to protect yourself from customers pulling the tip back.

“Customers do have that option, and there’s nothing we can do about it, even if we do a great job,” he said. “Unfortunately, we rely on tips and we’re underpaid to begin with.”

As a company, Instacart says that shoppers get a flat rate (about $4 minimum order) while keeping 100% of their tips. That dependency on tips ― and the lack of workers’ rights that characterize the gig economy ― create an insecure working environment for many who sign up to shop.

Gender bias from clients before they even get a chance to start shopping is the last thing gig workers need, Nelson said: “I view myself as one of the best shoppers, but I think there is bias against male shoppers.”

Sure, there’s some bad apples that are shockingly bad at picking apples, but in general, Nelson thinks shoppers ― male and female ― don’t get enough credit.

“We are providing them a service that saves them time, gas and stress from traffic. Think of the stay-at-home moms who have kids to take care of,” he said. “Instead of loading the kids in the car to make a Costco run, we can do it for them. People forget that this is a nice luxury to have.”