In the blog post referring to the layoffs, the company said it was testing new workflows with its retail partners. One of these is called Partner Pick. With Partner Pick, grocery store employees, instead of Instacart buyers, use the company’s technology stack to prepare orders for customers. “Due to the fact that some grocery stores are switching to a Partner Pick model, we will be stopping our operations in certain stores at certain malls in the coming months,” the company said in the post.
It is understandable that the company came under fire for the decision. “Instacart, which is firing the only union workers at the company and destroying the work of nearly 2,000 dedicated front-line workers in the midst of this public health crisis, is simply wrong,” said Marc Perrone, president of United Foods and Commercial Workers. Instacart was one of the companies that spent millions last year to pass Prop 22 in California. The ballot box measure aims to scrap the AB5 law of the state and prevent it from classifying workers of gig economy as employees of the companies for which they work.