How early mornings on the trail became a livelihood

When Andrew first started shopping for Instacart around Kelowna, it was meant to be a stopgap — a few hours between seasons to keep the lights on. Three years later, those early starts have become the rhythm of his life.

He leaves home before the lake has finished catching the light. By the time most of the city is reaching for a first coffee, he's already filled three batches and mapped a fourth. The trick, he says, isn't going faster — it's knowing which offers are worth saying yes to. Powerphone does the watching so he can do the driving.

Real-time monitoring meant he stopped staring at his screen between orders. Instead of refreshing endlessly, he lets the app flag the runs that fit his route and his rate, and he keeps moving.

What changed wasn't just the money. It was the predictability. Knowing the good offers won't slip past while he's loading the car turned a side hustle into something he can plan a week — and a life — around.

These days Andrew mentors a handful of newer shoppers in the Okanagan, trading the kind of local knowledge no app can teach: which plazas have the fastest pickup, when the afternoon rush really starts, and why the first hour of the day is almost always the best one.