The COVID-19 Pandemic permanently changed the U.S. workforce in ways that many don’t realize. Before the pandemic some people looked down on gig workers like they were too lazy to get a regular job or perhaps weirdos who didn’t fit into a normal workplace. During the pandemic when everyone was confined to their own homes, attitudes began to change.
Before the pandemic hit, I was doing Uber, DoorDash, and Instacart. I was also delivering for Walmart through a local delivery platform that’s now out of business. Back then practically no one had heard of Instacart. We had to schedule our work hours. If someone else grabbed the good hours, you had no way of working. In early 2019 Instacart eliminated scheduling and started allowing shoppers to log onto the app anytime they wanted.
In early March of 2020, Instacart had an estimated 200,000 personal shoppers across the U.S. I was doing Instacart when the pandemic hit, and believe me we were raking in the bucks. It wasn’t unusual to receive $500 per week just in cash tips. I had no idea what was going on behind the scenes until a customer told me he’d placed his order 8 days earlier. Since placing the order I delivered, he’d placed three more orders that weren’t even scheduled for delivery yet. I had no idea orders were backed up over a week!
On March 23, after the country was on lockdown, Instacart announced that it was adding another 350,000 personal shoppers1. I immediately knew the good days were over. Within weeks there were so many personal shoppers almost everyone was receiving their groceries the same day. Good for them but bad for us personal shoppers. The base pay started dropping and has never recovered.
Just when it seemed like the bottom had fallen out of the Instacart gig, on April 23, 2020, Instacart announced it was adding another 250,000 personal shoppers2. Nationwide we went from 200,000 personal shoppers to 800,000 in a matter of weeks. Talk about flooding the market with shoppers!
I mentioned Instacart during the pandemic because it was the only gig that was thriving. Uber was dead in the water because no one was going to work. DoorDash was my only other active gig but there was one major issue. I made it to the top of the food chain and was doing only DoorDash Drive deliveries. They were catering gigs but no one was ordering because we were told to avoid crowds and to not gather with anyone outside your immediate family. DoorDash deliveries were booming but that was no longer my preference. I wanted the catering orders to come back!
During the 100s of Instacart orders I delivered during the pandemic, I kept hearing the same thing from customers. Some actually hated grocery shopping and said they’d see me again because they were never going to the grocery store again. It was then that I knew gig work was about to explode. It had nothing to do with the pandemic but the fact that some people hate shopping.
During the pandemic Instacart added 550,000 new personal shoppers. DoorDash claims to have over 1 million more Dashers now than before the pandemic. Uber and Lyft still struggle to attract new drivers but that’s primarily because their base pay is not competitive. Instacart still has over 1 million personal shoppers but most are multi gigging to stay busy when all they see are Instacart double or triple orders with base pay that seems like a joke. Although no figures for gig workers are maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor, we would venture out on a limb and gues-stimate that there are at least 3 million more U.S. gig workers than there were before the pandemic.
Some industries will probably never recover from the pandemic. The best known industry is food service. Waitresses who struggled receiving $2.13/hour working in restaurants are now making more delivering a single DoorDash order than they did waiting on customers for 8 hours. Line cooks who could barely make ends meet working for $16-$18 an hour are now making twice as much doing gig work.
Shortly after the pandemic was officially declared over I was picking up a Roadie delivery from a Tractor Supply location. The store manager asked how much the delivery was paying. Sure enough, he and almost the entire store staff were Roadies. They make deliveries on their days off. He said he was off weekends and drove a pickup truck with trailer. He said most weekends he made more delivering for Roadie than he did as the store manager. Of course, since our conversation Roadie’s base pay has gone to total shit. The same gigs that paid $95 four years ago now pay under $20.
1 Instacart Announces Plans To Bring On 300,000 New Personal Shoppers Over The Next 3 Months
