Dasher Diary: The “Starbucks” Order That Turned Into a Full-Car Grocery Haul

It's been over three years since I started delivering food in Amarillo, and in that time, I have never had a delivery like this. It was one that I thought would turn out to be a scam order just because it looked like nothing I had seen before.

The Starbucks Mystery: When the App Doesn't Make Sense

I got the notification that I was needed to go to Market Street and Chipotle. My first pickup was from Market Street, but under the store, it said Starbucks. Yes, Market Street on Georgia has a Starbucks, but all of the items listed under it didn't make sense.

It said stuff like "1 x bag"; there were several of those. Then it would list "loose item". I really was confused. So I went inside and stopped at Starbucks first, and they said they don't even use DoorDash to deliver. So then I went to the market and asked them.

It also didn't come from them, but they mentioned that it could have been a curbside pickup. I didn't even know they used DoorDash to deliver, but apparently, they do. So I drove over to the side of the building.

The Logistics of a "Haul": Loading and Scanning the Car

I flagged someone down to see if they had an order for this customer. Luckily, they did. So that mystery was solved. They then brought out a car full of stuff. They had tons of packages of paper towels, cases of water, and cleaning supplies. This was a haul.

I had never done a delivery like this and didn't know I had to scan every bag and every loose item. That took some time. Once my car was fully loaded, I had to drive to Chipotle. I picked up that food and drove to my first dropoff.

Luckily, it was the grocery delivery. The customer wanted me to deliver to the back door. Apparently, she was not home and wanted her delivery safe. I had to drive down this long driveway to get to the door.

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Another thing I did not know is that once I unloaded my car and had it all stacked by her back door, I tried to mark it as delivered. Apparently, for these sorts of drop-offs, I have to scan each and every barcode on the bags and the loose items again.

The nicely stacked items now had to all be moved and scanned again. This was not a fun delivery. This was quite the learning experience. It took a lot of time, and the poor person who ordered from Chipotle had to wait for her food.

The Tale of Two Tips: Grocery Winners and Chipotle Losers

In the end, with all of the hard work and stress this order caused me, luckily, it paid well. The grocery delivery made me $18, with $15 of that being the tip. The Chipotle customer who waited the longest didn't even leave a tip, so it seems DoorDash prioritized the right payout.

Would I like to do more of these orders? A lot of it was stressful because it took me a lot longer to realize this was a grocery drop-off. It might have gone smoother if I had known it from the start or had any direction on what I was supposed to do. At least now I know.