Our goal is to make grocery shopping effortless so people can live happier, healthier lives. To achieve this vision, it’s important we cultivate and preserve an environment built on a foundation of Safety, Respect, and Integrity for all Instacart customers, shoppers, and partners.
We built our Community Guidelines around these three pillars, and expect everyone to adhere to the standards below while engaging on the platform.
Safety
Safety is our first priority. Every individual should feel comfortable, safe, and secure using the Instacart platform. We don't permit any activity that could create unsafe conditions or cause harm to others.
To ensure the highest levels of safety on the platform, we reserve the right to investigate and take action on any instances including, but not limited to, the following—
- Acts of violence or aggression including, but not limited to assault, violence/threats of violence, aggressive gestures, battery, abusive or threatening mental or verbal treatment, harassment, etc.
- Sexual conduct of any kind involving customers, contractors, or employees of retailers or Instacart while receiving or facilitating services on the platform.
- Brandishing a weapon while receiving services unless state law expressly prohibits this restriction.
- Failure to verify your identity while receiving services on the platform.
- Demanding shoppers enter a residence. Instacart shoppers are expected to deliver groceries to the customer at their desired address, but are never expected or required to enter the residence of a customer and reserve the right to decline the request.
Is this an emergency?
If you’re experiencing an emergency and need immediate assistance, please dial 911. When emergency services have been notified and you’re safe, please feel free to use our customer in-app reporting feature to notify our Trust & Safety team about your recent experience.
Leave at my door deliveries
If you or a loved one don’t feel comfortable engaging with your shopper in person, select the leave at my door option for deliveries, except for orders requiring a valid ID scan. These orders include the following—
- Alcohol/liquor
- Prescriptions and select over-the-counter medications
- High-value items
Pet safety
Out of concern for shopper safety and your pet’s well-being, please make sure all pets are safely secured before your delivery arrives.
Unsafe environment
When your shopper arrives, please turn on your outdoor lights to help your shopper identify your home and be aware of any impediments or debris that may pose challenges in properly delivering your order.
Communicating with your shopper
Shopping for groceries can be a confusing and tedious task. Please be kind, considerate, and patient with your shopper. Threats, profanity, or flirtatious language in-app or in person violates Instacart’s policies and may result in the loss of your account.
Maintaining privacy with your shopper
To maintain privacy, please refrain from sharing any personal information with your shopper. All communication should happen in-app. Your account name and address is temporarily shared but not stored on the shopper's personal device. After the order is done, shoppers don’t have access to any customer's personally identifying information via the Instacart app. Personal information not shared with shoppers includes—
- Personal phone number
- Full legal name
- Email address
- Credit card information
Respect
We strive to create and maintain a welcoming, inclusive, and respectful environment for everyone, at all times. Our expectation is simple: treat others the way you want to be treated.
As part of our continuous effort to promote respect on the platform, we reserve the right to investigate and take action on any instances including, but not limited to, the following—
- Discrimination of any kind on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender or gender identity, age, marital status, sexual orientation, mental/physical condition or disability, age, profession, national origin or any other basis protected under applicable law.
- Vulgar, inappropriate, intrusive, harassing, abusive or unwanted language of any kind towards others, whether verbal or written. This includes, but is not limited to, asking overly personal questions of customers, contractors, retailer employees or Instacart employees.
- Unwanted physical contact or sexual conduct of any kind involving contractors, retail employees, or Instacart employees while receiving services.
- Intentional property damage or vandalism of any kind.
- Creating disturbances for the surrounding public (e.g. neighbors, co-workers, store employees, security guards, etc).
Integrity
Trust is a key ingredient in our recipe for success as a community. We expect all members of the Instacart community to be honest and to represent and conduct themselves in a way that fosters trust across the platform.
As part of our continuous effort to promote integrity on the platform, we reserve the right to investigate and take action on any instances including, but not limited to, the following—
- Violation of any local, state, or federal laws while engaging with the Instacart platform.
- Engaging in spam or phishing-related activity.
- Abuse and/or manipulation of referral, coupon, or appeasement offerings, loyalty programs, etc.
- Encouraging others to participate in fraud or to disrupt the integrity of the platform.
- Misrepresentation of identity/contact information or providing false information to internal teams during delivery.
- Instances of theft.
- Sharing or distributing personal information of customers, shoppers, retailers or Instacart employees. This includes taking screenshots of the Instacart app while displaying personally identifiable or sensitive information.
- Unauthorized use of Instacart’s trademark or intellectual property.
- Providing inaccurate or fraudulent information to Instacart during the sign-up process or otherwise.
- Holding duplicate accounts.
We encourage you to learn more about how these guidelines apply to you by viewing our Account Access Guidelines for customers and shoppers.
The Community Guidelines above are not comprehensive and Instacart reserves the right to suspend or deactivate customer, shopper, or retailer accounts for other reasons as deemed necessary in Instacart’s reasonable and good faith business judgment to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the platform.
Access to the platform
Instacart reviews all reported violations of these Community Guidelines and reserves the right to permanently remove account access for shoppers or customers found to be in violation.*
*In some instances, a thorough investigation may be needed, during which time the associated account(s) will be suspended pending the outcome.