Laid off from Instacart.

What Instacart layoffs have meant for employees

In January 2021 Instacart had more than 500,000 contract shoppers, Grocery Dive reported, and fewer than 10,000 in-store shoppers on its payroll, by its lawyer's count. The in-store shoppers were the employees, and they worked inside particular grocers' stores, so their jobs depended on two decisions. One was the grocer's, whether to keep Instacart's people picking its orders. The other was Instacart's own, and the letter argued that contractors, who could be sent wherever demand moved, were the more efficient choice. By then, its lawyer said, Instacart had been cutting in-store shoppers since 2018, starting in areas such as Los Angeles, Seattle, Minneapolis, San Diego and parts of Texas.

Whole Foods was the plainest case on the grocer's side, because the chain was leaving Instacart's marketplace altogether, and Instacart said in December 2018 that it expected to ramp down all of its remaining Whole Foods in-store shopping after the first group was affected, Grocery Dive reported. The 2021 plan was wider, about 366 shoppers at Mariano's and other Kroger-owned stores and about 1,500 at chains Instacart declined to name, and it included the company's only unionized workers, so union representation didn't keep a job off the list. The UFCW called the move a "ruthless attempt to eliminate jobs of essential workers" during the pandemic, while the lawyer's letter said Kroger knew of the plan and was in accord with it. Instacart also said it would transfer some of those shoppers to locations where the job continued and encourage retailers to hire them.

The 2024 restructuring cut corporate jobs. The first-quarter 10-Q put its severance and termination-benefit charges at $18 million for the quarter, spread across research and development, general and administrative, sales and marketing, and operations and support. The same note showed a $46 million benefit from reversing stock compensation already booked for terminated employees' unvested awards, against an immaterial cost for vesting the company accelerated. Fortune reported that the cuts would also focus on teams working on larger projects, such as advertising through Roku and Google Ads. At announcement the 8-K had estimated $19 million to $24 million in charges, mostly cash for transition and severance payments and benefits, and it also reported that the board raised its share buyback authorization to $1 billion the same day it approved the cuts.

The Caper decision and the DoorDash agreement came days apart, Instacart's third-quarter 10-Q shows, and the agreement sets terms for jobs before and after closing. From signing until the deal closes or the agreement ends, the merger agreement bars Instacart from implementing or announcing mass layoffs, plant closings or other steps that trigger WARN notice, any other material reduction in force, or a voluntary separation program without DoorDash's written consent, which isn't to be unreasonably withheld. The exceptions are matters listed in Instacart's disclosure letter, steps the agreement allows and what the law requires. If you're in the Caper unit and moving into a new role, the agreement's pay and severance terms for the year after closing apply only if you're on Instacart's payroll just before the deal closes and stay on after it, and it says employees can't claim them as third-party beneficiaries.

Instacart's stated reason for ending Caper was commercial, that retailer adoption hadn't scaled quickly enough to justify more investment, according to a company update P2PI quoted. Anyone who worked for Instacart in California, where it keeps its San Francisco headquarters, can find the state's claim rules at California unemployment benefits.