Personal grocery shopping became a very lucrative business during this COVID19 pandemic, but the popularity of this line of work started blooming long before. Naturally, lockdown made personal grocery shopping an almost crucial way for folks to buy everything they need, and more and more people are starting to use apps and services that offer such services.
Ordering stuff online and using home delivery is now firmly established as our way of life. Right now, there are more than a couple of big companies that deal only with personal grocery shopping. But, they seem to be employing more and more people, although not everyone is keen to try it right away.
Some think that this way of shopping robs us of the joy of picking your own groceries. So, what is this new trend, how does it work, and can you make a living doing it? Let’s find out!
How Does This Work?
How does personal grocery shopping work? For those of you who are not familiar with it, let us explain how this works in general.
First, let us imagine that there are two kinds of people in this world — those who hate shopping and despise everything about it and those who could do it every day. Now, let’s imagine that both of those groups could be satisfied at the same time. It seems impossible, right? But personal grocery shopping apps and companies do exactly that. They work just like shared transport apps connecting the users, or in our case shoppers, with independent contractors who can do it all for them.
The apps are very simple and easy to use, no matter if you are a contractor or a shopper. If you hate shopping, you can basically use an app to look around a virtual grocery store and, when you’ve found what you like, place an order and wait. The drivers are independent contractors who use the app will accept the order and deliver it all to your doorstep. Everybody’s happy! Most services have a same-day delivery option, but many of them also allow you to shop early and select a delivery date in the following week, for example.
Know the Players on the Field
Who are the players on the personal grocery shopping field? Each day, more and more companies enter the personal shopping market. Some of them are startups, and some are big retail chains adapting to the new era. Here are some of the best places for your online personal shopping:
Walmart Grocery
You’ve surely heard of Walmart before, but they have online grocery shopping too. If you live near one of the 3,000 Walmart stores that participate in the program, you can get any product through Walmart’s grocery delivery service, from meat to frozen pizzas.
Instacart
While many report issues with Instacart, it is becoming very popular with online shoppers, mostly because they partnered with a large number of well-known national grocery chains. Your order is placed on the company’s web page or the smartphone app. Instacart is a little different grocery delivery service. Here, you have the personal shoppers select your items from the store and then deliver them to you.
Amazon fresh
To buy on this platform, you need to be an existing Amazon Prime member. If you are, you have access to tons of fresh vegetables, fruits, and food, all from the Amazon digital interface you already know. Many customers are using this service to shop at Whole Foods, but Amazon Fresh partners with local retailers and supermarkets in each city it operates in.
Shipt
Shipt is a classic grocery delivery service. It is well known for the fact you can get your groceries delivered as quickly as one hour after ordering. And the store is open 24/7!
Favor
This company is a lot more than just a grocery delivery service. You can order a pizza or even get your dry cleaning picked.
Who Needs These Services?
Online shopping isn’t something new. Some of the companies that offer this service were founded over a decade ago. But more and more people don’t have enough time in their life or just have something better to do than to go shopping. Also, with colder weather coming and the world facing another lockdown, our old way of life that we enjoyed so much until now is over. Online shopping may become a normal thing in the future. Eighty percent of those who have started to shop online because of COVID-19 intend to continue doing so. Home delivery is less risky than a trip to a supermarket, as it lowers the risk of contracting the virus. Another plus is that it lets you do other stuff!
Grocery retailers face a new era in grocery shopping and an unprecedented change in customer behavior. Much of the new customer behaviors will likely stick.
Is This a Worthwhile Job?
Like in any market, new demands open opportunities for new jobs. Laying a gig in one of these companies became a new way to earn money. The reasons why people turn to this kind of work are numberless.
Pros and Cons
First of all, many of these jobs have extremely flexible working hours, so you can start working whenever you want. The pay varies a lot, but you can make between $15 and $20 an hour. You can do the math on how much you can make in a month. In every job, there are some positive sides you see right away and hidden negative sides you discover along the way. Most of these jobs require you to have a car, for example. So, If you plan on doing any kind of delivery work, you’ll definitely need a good one. The money you make does not include gas expenses and car service.
On the other hand, this kind of work can be a little unstable because you never know how many orders you’re going to get on a given day. For instance, weekends are more likely to be full of orders than workdays. In addition, you’ll need to prepare yourself for interaction with people because you’ll be mostly visiting people’s homes. That can be very exhausting if you’re not a chatty and friendly person. You need to be extremely self-organized, independent, and good with people to withstand this kind of work.
Bear in mind that not every employer out there lets you work as an independent contractor. Some jobs on the market include being in a warehouse or store the whole shift. That means no fresh air and managers breathing down your neck.
These jobs tend to be best for people who already have a primary income source and want to make an extra buck. Most of these companies are hiring really fast and offer to pay on a weekly basis, so it’s a good gig to look into if you need money right away.
Do you want to start your personal shopping career? Be inspired by this story.
To Conclude
So there you have it. “The times they are changing!” But there is always some new way for you to manage — if you are brave enough to try it!
