I think Instacart is a fantastic concept / service but for me it doesn't come without some internal conflict. When I was in grad school and didn't have a car, it was a huge pain to go grocery shopping. I had to bike a mile to the nearest grocery store and I could only fit a few items in my backpack. On top of that, it would rain often (thank you Florida), making the whole experience absolutely miserable. I always wished there was some service that could do "maintenance shopping" for me and always deliver the weekly essentials. I thought the same about laundry as well.
Now that I have a job and live a few blocks from the nearest store and have a car, is it right to pay someone else to do my shopping for me? Am I really that lazy? Do I really value other's time less than my own? I have often pondered these questions ever since services like Taskrabbit started and I saw people (able-bodied 20-somethings) using TR to do things like screw new light bulbs in.
So I'm not saying services like this shouldn't exist, because there is clearly a need...but I worry about what it means for our culture.
The entire purpose of the modern economy is to pay other people to do things so you don't have to do them yourself. Did you build your house from trees that you chopped down yourself? Do you grow all your own food? Do you cut your own hair?
If you think it's worthwhile to do your own grocery shopping, then you may do so. But there's nothing wrong with paying someone else for a service.
You presumably pay people for their skillsets. Screwing a light bulb in or doing your grocery shopping doesn't require a special skillset. There are some tasks that just aren't in the same ballpark as building homes, growing food, and cutting hair, and I think shopping is one of them.
The thing is that someone who is listing their services on TaskRabbit wants to exchange their time for money. If it's an amount of money that's worth it to you, it's not you who valued their time less then your own, it's they who did it. Why do law firms have janitors? Because lawyers' time is economically, if not morally, more expensive than janitors' time.
It's not a cultural failure to hire someone to do something you could do yourself, but rather wouldn't. Someone who is on TaskRabbit delivering groceries probably isn't using a bicycle, can get better at it than you can by combining deliveries, and can make money at the same time. It's a win for both parties.
I urge you to think deeper about this. You are saying these people chose to list their time, but why do they consider it in the first place and why don't you? Alternatively, think about the array of choices they have to make money and yours.
I'm not saying its an immoral service. I'm implying that "distributed labor" startups are problematic for me to participate in as a customer because I find the notion of spinning up people like we do servers to do tasks that I can buy my way out of to be problematic.
Whoah, hold on a minute. There are millions of people doing things for you less expensively. Just because you have a direct connection to an Instacarter (or whoever) doesn't really change much.
It makes the problem more real though, doesn't it? Unless you live next to an Apple factory, most people are abstracted away from this dilemma. If an Instacarter dropped off a package of light bulbs (sticking with the theme), what type of assumptions would you make?
By flushing your toilet you're participating in a system that requires someone to literally deal with your crap for probably far less money than they deserve to do it. This is more OK because you don't have to look that person in the eyes?
Now that I have a job and live a few blocks from the nearest store and have a car, is it right to pay someone else to do my shopping for me? Am I really that lazy? Do I really value other's time less than my own? I have often pondered these questions ever since services like Taskrabbit started and I saw people (able-bodied 20-somethings) using TR to do things like screw new light bulbs in.
So I'm not saying services like this shouldn't exist, because there is clearly a need...but I worry about what it means for our culture.