In the blog post referencing the layoffs, the company said it was testing new workflows with its retail partners. One is called Partner Pick. With Partner Pick, grocery store employees, rather than Instacart buyers, use the company’s technology stack to prepare orders for customers. “As a result of the transition of some grocery stores to a Partner Pick model, we will be closing our operations in stores at selected retail locations in the coming months,” said the company in the post.
Understandably, the company was criticized for the decision. “Instacart firing the company’s only union workers and destroying the jobs of nearly 2,000 dedicated front-line workers in the midst of this public health crisis is just wrong,” said Marc Perrone, president of the United Foods and Commercial Workers union. Instacart was one of the companies that spent millions last year to approve Prop 22 in California. The electoral measure sought to outline state law AB5 and prevent it from classifying workers in the giant economy as employees of the companies for which they work.