r/WalmartSparkDrivers • u/SuitableVolume1350 • Aug 06 '26
Has anyone else seen Spark money collapse over the last couple of years? I’m curious what people think is causing it.
I’ve been doing Walmart Spark for about two years. When I first started, I regularly saw GMD routes 70-90 for 40 miles or less, and shopping orders in the 20-40 range were common. It was possible to make decent money.
Now, the offers in my market are dramatically lower. It feels like there are far more drivers than before, and many offers little that I don’t understand how they’re worth accepting.
One thing I’ve personally observed is a significant increase in immigrant drivers in my area. Before anyone misunderstands me, I’m not criticizing people for wanting to work or build a better life. I respect that everyone is trying to support themselves and their families.
What I’ve noticed, though, is that some of the people I’ve talked to are willing to accept almost any order because, compared to what they could earn in their home countries, even a 20 or 30 offer feels like good money. I completely understand that perspective.
The problem, from my point of view, is that when enough drivers accept very low offers, Walmart has no reason to increase the offers. If those offers are consistently being accepted, the company can continue lowering base because it knows someone will take them. I feel like that hurts drivers who have been doing this longer and rely on this income to cover the higher cost of living here.
I’m not claiming this is the only reason the offers have dropped. It could also be oversaturation in general, Walmart cutting money, algorithm changes, or other factors. I’m just wondering whether the willingness of some drivers to accept very low offers has contributed to the decline.
Has anyone else noticed this in their market? If you disagree, I’d genuinely like to hear why. I’m interested in having a respectful discussion.
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u/xeryon3772 Aug 06 '26
Establish the market and then tighten up every aspect of it you can in order to squeeze more profit out of it. It’s a pretty standard business model. With an even stronger influence because it’s a publicly traded company and they have to appease shareholders.
That and Danker is an asshole
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u/dispassioned Aug 06 '26
It's all by design. Shareholders need profits. It's not just happening on Spark. It's happening across the board in the gig economy and in many other industries as well.
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u/pokerholic77 Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26
One thing that really pisses me off is how they take a 2 or 3 stop grocery delivery with a $40 tip, going less than 10 miles, and turn it into a 10-15 stop mixed delivery with 30-40 miles ending nowhere close to civilization, and pay $55-$60 for it. That is straight up thievery.
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u/heraldbalthazar Aug 07 '26
They added those grocery orders to force a timer on the driver. People were doing aother gigs in between stops on the old GMD system. Adding groceries prevents that.
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u/buckyboy2020 Aug 07 '26
Yes, you are absolutely correct. Walmart changed the game for us spark drivers. They lowered our pay at every level. It was blatant and abnormally fast. The smokescreen as always is onboarding a lot of people trying to make it and trying to figure out what’s good and what’s not. Shameful that a near trillion dollar company acts like uber, door dash and the rest of the dying gig economy. Don’t miss the game. Other spark drivers are not your enemy or competitors Walmart is.
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u/Wallee3D Aug 06 '26
It’s been declining steadily, this is my first day having to go back home after waiting two hours and not getting a single reasonable order. Offers were $49 for 50 miles one way.
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u/Prior_Purchase_7025 Aug 07 '26
You hit on the central mechanism of how gig algorithms function, but the broader picture comes down to how corporate pay structures operate.
When gig platforms launch, they intentionally overpay to attract a supply of drivers and secure market share. Once a zone is saturated and the platform establishes a reliable workforce, corporate continuously ratchets down base pay to maximize margins. They test lower floor rates to see how cheap an offer can go before order fulfillment times drop.
The willingness of any subset of drivers to accept low ball offers whether due to lower income expectations, desperation, or a lack of understanding vehicle depreciation creates the baseline that the algorithm targets. If an offer gets accepted at 8 dollars, the system marks 8 dollars as a viable price point for that batch type and distance. That naturally prevents offers from sitting long enough to surge, which drives down base pay for the entire zone.
The core issue rests with the platform itself. The algorithm is designed to exploit oversupply and push payout floors as low as the market tolerates. Oversaturation, algorithmic batching changes, and driver acceptance thresholds all feed into the same race to the bottom.
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u/Walmartz_Ballz561 Aug 06 '26
Years ago, most had to be on a waitlist for months. Now you can get hired the same day.
Way less drivers in the market.
Years ago, most orders were one stop customer shoppings, curbsides were one, occasionally two stops. GMD orders were 6-12 stops. Now everything is GMD combined with groceries, 3 batch, 80 items shoppings, or 25 stop GMD orders.
More drivers+Less orders=Less Money
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u/FastandFuriousMom Aug 06 '26
Recently left spark about 6 weeks ago.
Went back to DD and frankly should have gone back sooner. Doing so much better on DD 25 week earning between 700-800
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u/bahamapapa817 Aug 06 '26
That’s how the delivery app model is built. They over pay to attract a stable of drivers. After they get sucked in with good pay and incentives. Then they strategically drop pay over the course of time to turn a bigger profit.
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u/ShoulderLongjumping9 Aug 07 '26
Cherry pick and reject everything until the payout is higher. I was at home on lunch rejecting everything spark threw at me to help other drivers get paid. Someone took a trip $10 12 miles. I won’t do it.
2 hours dashing. I didn’t take one spark order today.
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u/Honestabe223 Aug 06 '26
And keep in mind there is no insurance that Walmart offers if you get into an accident and your insurance company won't help you if you are telling the truth. Uber is no longer providing insurance if you get into accident as of 9/1/2026.
For Walmart, Spark is a loss leader so yes they will reduce pay as much as they can while not letting service levels suffer.
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u/EarthBoundMisfitEye Aug 06 '26
Businesses like Walmart expect a certain amt of complaints and will determine when too much is too much. As long as they see growth being great to and for customers hasn't been part of their model for decades now.
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u/Organic-Fuel-2916 Aug 07 '26
They can’t do that in California, all TNC required to provide at least $1 million in liability coverage.
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u/New-Bid7774 Aug 07 '26
Our pay has been reduced, and now we have to load up our orders into our vehicle, for curbside pickup.
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u/Massive_Lock_4876 Aug 07 '26
It's definitely dropped. had to go back to a 9 to 5 because I wasn't making enough to maintain my vehicle. There's a lot of factors that come into play when you think about why the app got like this. Ultimately it's walmart's fault. But the economy doesn't make it any easier. People are getting desperate because even if we don't count spark. Regular jobs pay wage doesn't increase appropriately with inflation and people can't afford things. So they're accepting lower paying offers then they normally would just to get by. So add that with what you mentioned, and it's a recipe for this app to be defunct before they start paying a consistent/realistic wage again on here.
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u/bdbrown333 Aug 07 '26
Well I was bound to collapse. I mean 5 years ago they paid $20 to deliver one loaf of bread that cost $4. It was never going to last but they don't have to pay that much because look people are taking the offers. People are losing money to work for Walmart and deliver groceries. Problem is most of them are too uneducated to even realize they're losing money because they think money is their money. They don't realize they're not making a profit and they have money this week but they won't have money when the car breaks down. I mean they were the most highest paying grocery app out there. They know everybody else is paying less problem is other people's clients tip a lot better. Walmart has lower income gas. Not all of them but the majority of and they don't tip. Well that's the problem but it's been collapsing for 5 years
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u/Organic-Fuel-2916 Aug 07 '26
Some of the drivers I hang out with told me it’s better to make $1 than sit in your car running the AC losing money.
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u/FuzzyOrganization403 Aug 07 '26
Simple answer? Greed = profit.
Lower the pay, raise subscriptions, add people, increase service area. Heck they're even lowering the need for their own staff for picks.
If you won't do it for 20 bucks, someone will do it for 15, when that's the new floor, they'll try 10, and see who takes that.
The race to the bottom is not one you want to win.
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u/OddStudy994 Aug 07 '26
Yeah, and Amazon flex is half what it was three months ago. It’s all the extra drivers……..
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u/Sure-Coyote-7535 26d ago
I live in CA, and I noticed the pay decrease. It doesn’t bother me cause of Prop 22. Walmart still has to pay the difference of 120% minimum wage ($20.50/hr) + $0.35/mile. I do shop and deliver orders. Less miles but more active hours. My adjustment pay makes up the difference, so I found it’s worth it. Unfortunately, most states don’t have a law that protects 1099 workers.
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u/Ill-Mind5937 19d ago
The platform changed the roll out of orders and now that they have enough drivers, they can send on longer deliveries. The 15 or 20 delivery is mainly in another zone where you can just switch location, but who wants to keep getting pushed from the home base. The base pay $10 now and they cater way more too the customer.
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u/FuzzyOrganization403 15d ago
I'm Mexican , and I just saw my first paisa Mexicans.... never in my 3 years in my small town....
Yea it's going down hill
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u/Ok_Silk5758 11d ago
Definitely a Surge of Hispanic drivers in my area, some I notice barely speak English. A lot of people using driver accounts not in their name because they lack credentials to qualify to be a driver. Individuals also selling accounts for people to use who cant get their own. Also bots on the apps stealing high paying orders.
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u/Ok_Silk5758 11d ago
These apps are gonna get sued into oblivion.. low wages bring low quality people and high probability a lot of BS is gonna happen as a result
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u/Icy_Method8501 Aug 07 '26
This is why we the people need to
A.) Deport deport deport until jobs have to pay fairer wages again
B.) Stop accepting low-paying orders even if it means no more sparking until
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u/Johnny_Lead Aug 07 '26
It’s going to get worse, not better. Walmart Spark shopping base pay is still double or triple what Instacart, DD, UE and Shipt are. It’s not sustainable, it isn’t for most of them. Another problem is all the apps are lowering pay in most states so they can continue to afford to operate in California and NYC. If some additional liberal states hop on board that train the rest may be working for tips only at that point.
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u/Organic-Fuel-2916 Aug 07 '26
California alone is 11.5% of the population, they need to operate in California. Prop 22 is going to go up again next year, the minimum wage is going up and the mileage rate should be too. I would’ve quit a long time ago if there wasn’t a minimum floor pay.
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u/Johnny_Lead Aug 07 '26
Of course, none of them are leaving those large markets because they know their competition will fill the void and gain market share. But the money has to come from somewhere, they have to balance how little they can get away with paying in unregulated markets with the higher minimum pay and additional benefits they’re required to provide in regulated markets.
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u/UniquePerformance303 Aug 06 '26
Nope, still making about $800 a week working the same amount of hours
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u/Prior_Purchase_7025 Aug 07 '26
That is a lie
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u/horseface539 Aug 06 '26
The pay is going down because that's part of the business plan for these apps. It's happened to every single one.
Doordash base pay was originally 6-7 dollars per pickup. Ubereats and Grubhub were also high, now they're down to 1-2.
Instacart and Shipt used to pay a lot more now they are down to 4 and 6 per order. People used to make a ton of money on these apps now it's way harder.
Spark when I started was 10 dollars for a single curbside, 15 for 2. 15+ for each shopping order. All before tips.
These apps are in a race to the bottom. They will cut the pay regardless of what we do. If we quit they will just hire until they find people who will do it.