Instacart is joining more support positions to serve its shoppers, consumers and retail associates as the business faces unusual demand for its grocery distribution services due to COVID-19 shelter in place procedures.

Instacart announced that it had multiplied its Care team, from 1,200 workers to 3,000 workers.

What Provoked The Hiring Spree

Care team workers will work on solving questions on how Instacart works, delivery concerns, address accidents and additional general woes.

The hiring announcement comes after Instacart shoppers planned a strike last month, asking personal protective material, risk pay, default tips and prolonged sick pay.

Instacart has been on a recruiting spree as consumer demand grew more than 300% year over year in the previous week alone. 

Last month, the Instacart shopper association increased to 350,000 live shoppers, up from 200,000 two weeks ago.

Now, along with multiplying its Care team, Instacart states that it has further hired and confirmed an extra 15,000 agents that will enter the team by May. 

With that, Instacart announces it will have a Care team of around 18,000 members.

With higher demand and therefore more pressure on shoppers than ever before, the latest members seem like still another move by Instacart to attempt to soothe its growing shopper network. 

A person holding Instacart bag | iTMunch

The Rise Of Tip-Baiting 

Earlier this week, tip-baiting developed as a surrealistic tactic used by consumers. 

Consumers have been baiting Instacart shoppers to select their groceries by giving large tips on the bill within the app. 

Then, once the shopper leaves the groceries, consumers are reducing that tip to a lesser price or even to $0.

The capability to adjust the tip price up to three days following the grocery drop-off is a choice given through the Instacart application.

According to Instacart, tip-baiting is exceptional. 

Consumers either changed their tip higher or did not alter the tip at all on 99.5% of orders. 

The company also eliminated the “none” choice in the consumer tip section with expectations that consumers will tip at a minimum.

The company has further not changed the default tip minimum, as worker objections claimed for tip defaults to be set at 10% through this time.

The wave of hires for Instacart’s Care team was not linked to the tip-baiting issue, states the company, but instead linked to the wave of demand for the service.

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