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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday April 26 2020, @07:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the order-sniping dept.

Instacart has a problem with third-party apps letting shoppers pay for early access to orders – TechCrunch:

Kara Carmichael has been an Instacart shopper for years in Orlando, Fla. It's how she's been able to support her family, she told TechCrunch. But she says she has noticed an increase in third-party bot activity that has made shopping "nearly impossible."

Despite the high demand for Instacart amid the COVID-19 pandemic, shoppers like Carmichael are facing difficulties claiming orders within the shopper app. This is the result of what appears to be some sophisticated work by third-party apps like Ninja Hours, Sushopper and others.

"They grab the batches within a blink of an eye," Carmichael said. "I can barely see the amounts offered. Sometimes I may even just receive a notification because the batch has been taken before it was even registered in my app."

Ninja Hours appeared on the scene about a year ago in the Little Havana community in Miami, according to Logan B., an Instacart shopper with experience using Ninja Hours. Shoppers could pay Ninja Hours about $25 to $35 a week to get access to hours for the following week and in exchange, Ninja Hours would take over the shopper’s app to claim hours on their behalf. This was during a time when Instacart required shoppers to claim hours rather than on-demand orders.

[...] Logan says Instacart eventually caught on to Ninja Hours, which forced the service to shut down. Ninja Hours then became Hours For You, which emerged in the fall, Logan says. Hours For You then folded into Sushopper earlier this year.

[...] Other shoppers didn't seem to notice this was going on, Logan says, because Sushopper would claim the orders before they would even appear on the apps. But now that Sushopper has shut down, there's a new service — one that is not quite as fast.

[...] This increase in bot activity comes at a time when Instacart is ramping up its hiring of full-service shoppers. Just yesterday, Instacart announced it's adding 250,000 more shoppers to meet demand. That came after Instacart announced last month its plans to hire another 300,000 shoppers.

The increased number of full-service shoppers coupled with third-party bots quickly claiming orders, it's no wonder why some shoppers are feeling frustrated. Behind the scenes, Instacart is working to ban unauthorized third parties from accepting batches. In the meantime, the company is recommending shoppers not engage with those services.


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 26 2020, @09:43PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 26 2020, @09:43PM (#987371)

    Let's free our country so we can go back to our real jobs, instead of fighting for rich people's convenience dollars.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @12:02AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @12:02AM (#987403)

    And right there you've identified why lockup is going to go on for a very, very long time. Rich people have more money than poor people, and they like their convenience. Run the lockup long enough and your gig economy workers will be underbidding each other down to the ideal equilibrium state where the rich can hire a team to trim their lawns with scissors for two dollars per day... less than you'd spend on gas for the lawnmower and quieter too.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @03:53AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @03:53AM (#987450)

    You can get a job at a grocery store, there's plenty of them hiring right now. The problem is that the government is giving $600 a week on top of normal unemployment on top of the reduced risk of infection. Unsurprisingly, in most parts of the country, unemployment is just a better deal than what you're going to make working in any of these jobs.

    Working at a decent grocer isn't particularly bad, but it is additional risk and the government has done absolutely nothing to help support the people that are preventing mass starvation, whether it's the grocers or the supply chain that delivers the food to the stores. Not to mention the well-publicized issues at the various hospitals.

    • (Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @04:44AM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @04:44AM (#987455)

      government has done absolutely nothing to help support the people that are preventing mass starvation

      Excuse me? The state government here has let large grocery stores on the secretive "essential" list, letting them continue doing business as normal. I suspect having groceries lets the local Walmart run their entire store, handicrafts to gardening, though I haven't checked in person.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @05:01AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @05:01AM (#987457)

        Well maybe you can live without groceries but 'round here if we got nothing to eat we just might eat the likes of you!

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @05:21AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 27 2020, @05:21AM (#987463)

          Have you always suffered from poor reading comprehension?