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Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

workingwa.org

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Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

#301

Post by waserwill »

baroffoos wrote: post #255
School-Cotton wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea that things are the way they are because people are convinced by an "argument" is a common misconception. In reality, the system in the US is what it is because of the mostly random process of cultural development. Changing cultural norms is not easy in any society, even if you have good logical arguments against them.

Especially in the US. Just look at their ancient measuring system.

Hey, I really enjoy the imperial system (besides fahrenhiet). It gets more fun when you get beyond yards and pounds and into stones, hundredweight, and imperial tons and rods, chords, and furlongs.

Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

#302

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

_mdpn wrote: post #153
lenticular wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Collective action is essentially impossible among consumers though. Boycotts essentially never work. Not only that, but who are you going to use instead of instacart: Amazon Fresh? Uber? Or will you drive yourself to the store and buy it from minimum wage employees who work unstable hours? Also, what do you think the working conditions were like for whoever picked that asparagus?

>Collective action is essentially impossible among consumers though. It's not possible with an attitude like that. There is no government action that is forcing you to buy from Instacart. >Boycotts essentially never work. Tell that to Birmingham, Alabama. >Not only that, but who are you going to use instead of instacart: Amazon Fresh? Uber? Or will you drive yourself to the store and buy it from minimum wage employee…

You’re being down voted for saying, especially, “we can choose to live differently, to be kind to each other”.

You do have to be careful with that sort of language, we have a bit of a history of nailing people to trees or shooting them for suggesting such things.

Edit: fixed a word.

Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

#303

Post by bonestamp2 »

victor106 wrote: post #256
tedivm wrote: post #10

There's a related blog post up on Medium by this same group (Working Washington) where they placed the same order, once with tip and once without, so people could directly compare. From my perspective Instacart is stealing from its customers and workers by doing this. I'm a huge fan of instacart (my fiance and I use it regularly), but this is definitely going to push me away from the platform. At a minimum I'm going…

Same here. I’ve been using instacart since 3 years almost everyday. But this is it. I am off it. I can’t believe the greed that some companies go to, to take advantage of people struggling to make ends meet. Shame on them

Same. I just tried to cancel my membership but the link isn't working. I contacted customer service to get a working URL and I will report back here when I receive it.

Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

#305

Post by xmonkee »

sametmax wrote: post #206
jopsen wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this is why you have regulation, and need unions. Consumers have enough parameters to optimize for: price of groceries, cost of delivery, fair trade, availability of products, delivery speed, convenience, availability of delivery slots, the list is long. Consumers are relatively good at optimizing for cost, not perfect -- but asking for more than that is unrealistic.

There is no democraty if the people don't exercice their power. Voting once for a group of people make it one day democraty, the rest of the year oligarchy. There is litterally no other way to have a democraty that to make your day to day actions matter. Each citizen has to have a life directed to create a society. Now I understand how hard it is. And I don't blame people for failing at it, me included. But as long a…

Nope, what you are describing is capitalism, not democracy. Unfortunately we are so deep into the game now that it's had to imagine a world without it. I understand that it's hard, but try to imagine a world where workers can demand a living wage and not have to rely on the generosity of "good people" for the right to live.

Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

#306

Post by Zimahl »

wetpaste wrote: post #86
_t2kx wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From my perspective Instacart is stealing from its customers and workers by doing this. This is 100% wage theft.

I had a service industry job in texas that payed me around 2.50 an hour (iirc) and as long as I made enough in tips to cover minimum wage they didn't have to pay actual minimum wage. It's immoral as fuck to steal tips. I don't care if it's legal. If I'm a customer tipping the person a certain amount I want to make sure it's actually helping that person and not just lining the pockets of their employer, that's absurd.

That might be legal in Texas, but in Washington it's explicitly illegal. In the state, tips are completely irrelevant to base pay, all employees must get paid at least minimum wage as base pay.

Instacart is going to get fucked very quickly by the Washington AG. This is as bad as Walmart not paying employees for overtime.

Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

#307

Post by afterburner »

IMTDb wrote: post #172

Their help section specifically states : "Shoppers appreciate tips as a way of recognizing great service and 100% of your tip goes directly to the shopper delivering your order. For more information about tipping, follow this link." Source: https://www.instacart.com/help/section/200761924#213895126 payment/service fee section If confirmed this is straight out lying to your customers

Goddamn liars.

Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

#308

Post by Myrmornis »

atom-morgan wrote: post #97

Seriously, this is the responsibility consumers have in a free market. If there's behavior you don't like, move on. You don't get to complain about bad actors when you're literally keeping them in business.

I know this sounds right to you and many people, but it's very flawed. The idea that everything will be fine if consumers in a free market use their purchasing power wisely and ethically is cant. A particularly ugly side of it is the tipping culture in the US, where Joe public gets to decide on how much waiting staff get paid according to their personal assessment of how good their waiting was. It's a fig-leaf over the society's love of controlling, criticizing and ordering others what to do.

Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

#309

Post by ylesaout »

elken wrote: post #243

This is taking advantage of both the customer and the worker. I am not an instacart user myself but I use similar services and I expect that any tip will be delivered to the driver. I'd be pissed off to find out otherwise.

I don't live in US, but for sure the only way to ensure your tip goes to the right person is to give it with cash.

Re: Instacart paying 80 cents an hour because worker received a large tip

#310

Post by clairity »

tedivm wrote: post #10

There's a related blog post up on Medium by this same group (Working Washington) where they placed the same order, once with tip and once without, so people could directly compare. From my perspective Instacart is stealing from its customers and workers by doing this. I'm a huge fan of instacart (my fiance and I use it regularly), but this is definitely going to push me away from the platform. At a minimum I'm going…

yes, please always tip in cash for any service. there's no reason the business needs to be a middleman there.
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