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They seem to understand that demand for this type of gig work has significantly increased, which might usually mean a strategically good time to strike... But

They seem to understand that demand for this type of gig work has significantly increased, which might usually mean a strategically good time to strike... But they don't seem to properly recognize that the available supply of idled gig workers has just gone through the roof.

SilasX 7y ago
And Instacart doesn't recognize that the demand for this work is a reason they should be paying their shoppers[1] more, charging more to customers as necessary. [1] I assume Instacart has a special term for them but don't care to look it up.
- ls612 7y ago
  Doesn’t instacart work similar to Uber in that their algorithm is setting prices behind the scenes to try and clear the market between shoppers and customers?
  - beerandt 7y ago
    State price gouging laws aren't forgiving of increased prices, just because it's done by algorithm. At least none that I'm aware of. The closest I can think of is allowed percentage markup from wholesale on some commodities, like gas.
- beerandt 7y ago
  You're kind of making my point- demand is meaningless if you don't also account for supply. Also demand for the service correlates to instacarts demand for shoppers, but they're not exactly the same thing. As long as supply of workers is bigger than demand of workers, overall demand for the service is basically irrelevant with respect to shoppers pay. I'm not saying they should or shouldn't be paid more. I'm saying that at a time when you're easily replaceable isn't the time to be a difficult employee/contractor. As far as charging more, in many/most states it's now a moot point, as emergency declarations means no price increases because of gouging laws. I don't agree with it, but that's where we are. Yet another case of regulations having unintended consequences.
  - SilasX 7y ago
    Ah, sorry, you're right, I misread your point and agree about demand being higher. But I'm not sure that I agree that supply has increased in tandem -- at the very least, in the short-term, because there's an onboarding period. Since a lot of the jobless have access to unemployement benefits, they don't need to start right away. And further, even those who do like gig work will probably prefer food delivery, which has less interaction with others and thus lower risk of contracting the virus.

SilasX 7y ago

And Instacart doesn't recognize that the demand for this work is a reason they should be paying their shoppers[1] more, charging more to customers as necessary. [1] I assume Instacart has a special term for them but don't care to look it up.

ls612 7y ago
Doesn’t instacart work similar to Uber in that their algorithm is setting prices behind the scenes to try and clear the market between shoppers and customers?
- beerandt 7y ago
  State price gouging laws aren't forgiving of increased prices, just because it's done by algorithm. At least none that I'm aware of. The closest I can think of is allowed percentage markup from wholesale on some commodities, like gas.
beerandt 7y ago
You're kind of making my point- demand is meaningless if you don't also account for supply. Also demand for the service correlates to instacarts demand for shoppers, but they're not exactly the same thing. As long as supply of workers is bigger than demand of workers, overall demand for the service is basically irrelevant with respect to shoppers pay. I'm not saying they should or shouldn't be paid more. I'm saying that at a time when you're easily replaceable isn't the time to be a difficult employee/contractor. As far as charging more, in many/most states it's now a moot point, as emergency declarations means no price increases because of gouging laws. I don't agree with it, but that's where we are. Yet another case of regulations having unintended consequences.
- SilasX 7y ago
  Ah, sorry, you're right, I misread your point and agree about demand being higher. But I'm not sure that I agree that supply has increased in tandem -- at the very least, in the short-term, because there's an onboarding period. Since a lot of the jobless have access to unemployement benefits, they don't need to start right away. And further, even those who do like gig work will probably prefer food delivery, which has less interaction with others and thus lower risk of contracting the virus.