The Risks and Rewards of Instacart Shopping During a Crisis

A customer reaches out as Instacart employee Monica Ortega delivers groceries in an apartment complex in North Hollywood, Calif., on March 19, 2020. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

LOS ANGELES—On the morning of March 20, many Instacart workers woke up to a message from the company saying, “Thank you for being household heroes.”

For Instacart workers in California, the importance of delivering groceries to customers has taken on a new dimension in recent times.