Instacart workers show off hundreds of dollars in free food that they keep from canceled orders. 'This is the only perk of working Instacart.'

• Instacart shoppers often end up with free groceries when they can't deliver an order.
• Sometimes, customers don't respond to shoppers or they cancel an order at the last minute.

It happens all the time: An Instacart shopper buys a cart full of groceries, then finds out that they are undeliverable because the customer canceled the order last minute or isn't home when they pull up.

But for some shoppers, those kinds of last-minute obstacles are a perk: Instacart often lets shoppers keep all or some of the groceries for free.

TikTok user iamlo.uie said in a video posted in July that a customer canceled an order for about $200 in groceries right as he pulled up to their house. When he contacted Instacart support, the company told him he could keep the groceries.

"This is the only perk of working Instacart, honestly," the shopper says. In the video, he shows several bags of groceries that include Greek yogurt, eggs, and veggie burgers.

Another user, hobochronicles, posted a video in May showing bags of groceries from a Publix store in the back seat of their car.

"We got all these groceries for free because we couldn't locate the right address," the poster says in the video. "And Instacart was like, 'Keep 'em, just return the non-perishable items to Publix."'

Instacart issues shoppers a debit card to pay for items. That means Instacart carries the cost of canceled or undeliverable orders.

Shoppers can wind up with free food for one of multiple reasons.

An Instacart spokesperson told Insider it generally directs shoppers to return items to the store when they are unable to deliver them. But some retailers don't offer refunds on perishable items, such as fresh produce, the company said.

"In these cases, shoppers should return the accepted items and keep or donate the remaining items," Instacart said.

One shopper in California told Insider that a support agent canceled an order that he had shopped at a Costco store after he had purchased the items. That left him with about $100 in pre-cut vegetables and other chilled foods that Costco wouldn't take back, he said.

"It's just insane, the kind of stuff that we see happen," he told Insider. "I would love to know what their loss ratios are."

Do you work for Instacart and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@insider.com

October 5, 2023: Updated with comment from Instacart