Shoppers waiting for test results, or for whom their isolation orders don’t come from the requisite authorities are essentially both cleared to work, and shit out of luck in terms of receiving supplemental pay.

“There are people that are going to be put in a position where their only choice is to expose more people because they have to work,” Richey says.

“I drive a big delivery van, and I do the job, and it should be done professionally, cleanly, and safely for my customers,” said Telles, who also volunteers with the Gig Workers Collective. “Instacart unfortunately doesn’t have a business model that is set up to pay for that level of service, which is the only level of service people should be getting right now. Otherwise, they’re literally potentially killing people and families.”

Instacart, meanwhile, has framed the pandemic as a growth opportunity, pledging to hire 300,000 more “full-service shoppers” to meet increased demand — a move Telles called “reckless.”

“Bringing 300,000 more shoppers, untrained, unprotected, that are kind of desperate right now?

I think it’s reckless,” Telles told me. “And when they say 50,000 of them are going to New York and 30,000 California? Those are COVID-19 epicenters. Each one of us, myself included, are a potential vector or asymptomatic [carrier]. It’s a possibility, and we just can’t allow that.”