Hiring SoCal: Instacart grocery shoppers in high demand amid pandemic
With millions out of work because of COVID-19, there are some companies that have a need for more workers, like Instacart.
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (KABC) -- With millions in California out of work because of COVID-19, there's a mad dash to find a new job for the time being until hopefully, that previous work comes back.
Many are turning to jobs that don't require a lot of training because you're likely already doing it, like shopping at the grocery store.
Eric Amega has been an Instacart shopper in the Santa Clarita Valley for over a year.
"We usually had around 150 shoppers in my valley here and since they decided to hire over 550,000 people throughout America, it doubled now," said Amega.
That's right. Instacart went from 180,000 shoppers nationwide before the pandemic to over 500,000 with plans to hire another 250,000.
The company has delivered $35 billion worth of groceries this year, more than their end of 2022 goal. Amega loves his job and says he's received some big tips, but emphasizes you're only as good as your reviews.
"Go into the stores before you start doing any orders and start learning where all the items are laid out. Aisle by aisle by aisle. It all breaks us down on our speed, on the quality of items we pick and our accuracy when we do pick our items," said Amega.
All you have to do is download the shopper app, take a two-hour orientation, purchase insulated food delivery bags, and you'll get an alert when you receive an order.
"A good day I would say is $200 and up is a really good day. We're all frontline workers here doing this, risking our lives and working ourselves every day to make other people happy," said Amega.
Instacart says any of their shoppers diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into mandatory isolation or quarantine will get up to 14 days of pay.
