Move comes as it begins to equip store employees with technology to fulfill orders 564 2 minutes read Instacart is cutting approximately 1,800 in-store shoppers nationwide as it moves to a technology-focused “Partner Pick” model. (Photo: Instacart)
Instacart is laying off approximately 1,800 employees as it transitions to a “Partner Pick” model for grocery services.
The company made the acknowledgement in a Medium blog post on Tuesday, noting, “we’ll be winding down our in-store operations at select retailer locations over the coming months.” The line was included about two-thirds of the way down in a larger post about the new Instacart Pickup Retailer models.
By Matt Reese
I’m fairly certain that no single year in recent world history has had more of a universally global impact than 2020. Nationwide and around the world, if you were alive and breathing during the previous 12 months, 2020 inevitably had a significant impact on you. No matter your profession, age, socio-economic status, regardless of where you live or who you are, we are all likely heading into 2021 with an altered perspective from a year ago. Have you changed for the better?
I think one positive change in the last year was that the role of agriculture (from farms through the supply chain) gained some valuable ground in the estimation our society in general. Many of those far removed from the daily challenges of agriculture have clearly been taking our amazing food system for granted. Those folks got a sobering wake-up call in 2020.
Dive Brief:
Instacart plans to lay off approximately 1,877 workers who pick and pack grocery orders as it continues to reduce the number of its shoppers classified as employees, according to a Jan. 19 letter sent by an attorney representing the e-commerce provider to Local 1546 of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which represents grocery workers in Chicago.
The layoffs, first reported by Bloomberg, include Instacart’s only unionized workers, who serve as in-store shoppers at a Mariano’s store in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, Illinois.
Instacart is changing its approach to handling the online grocery services it offers consumers amid a broader push by retailers to make e-commerce services more efficient.