Many Instacart shoppers still don’t have their COVID-19 safety gear

Instacart’s plans to give shoppers masks and sanitizer during the COVID-19 pandemic are proceeding slower than many employees would like, and that’s partly on purpose. In response to workers’ concerns, the company told Wired in a statement that it ha...

Many Instacart shoppers still don’t have their COVID-19 safety gear

Instacart’s plans to give shoppers masks and sanitizer during the COVID-19 pandemic are proceeding slower than many employees would like, and that’s partly on purpose. In response to workers’ concerns, the company told Wired in a statement that it ha...

Amazon plans virtual grocery waiting lists to cope with surging demand

Amazon and Whole Foods have been straining to keep up with grocery demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s leading to new measures to reduce some of the frustration for shoppers. Amazon is introducing virtual waiting lines that will give you...

Instacart hopes to expedite deliveries with ‘first available shopper’ option

Instacart has realized that its scheduled grocery deliveries are ill-suited to a pandemic era when demand is surging and you’re frequently thankful if you can get a delivery at all, let alone in a timely fashion. The service has introduced a “Fast &a...

Online grocery deliveries are facing an unprecedented stress test

In the past few weeks, cities and states across the country have instructed people to stay home in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Going out for essentials like food is allowed, but that can be a risky proposition. Not only can grocery s...

Instacart workers go on strike after rejecting mild concessions

Instacart hasn't had success trying to avert a strike over a lack of COVID-19 protections. The Gig Workers Collective has declared that a shopper strike is "still on" after asserting that Instacart's concessions were inadequate. A change that sets...

Amazon offers warehouse workers higher pay to handle Prime Now groceries

Amazon's focus on essentials during the COVID-19 pandemic has led it to offer special incentives to workers. Reuters has learned that Amazon is offering warehouse workers a $2 raise to $19 per hour if they're willing to pick and pack Whole Foods gro...

Amazon suspends Prime Pantry to handle its backlog of orders

If you're looking to order food online while you're holed up at home amid the COVID-19 outbreak, you won't be able to do so through Amazon's Prime Pantry for now. The company has paused new orders through the service, which offers household and non-p...

Instacart employees in Chicago are the first to unionize in the US

Gig economy workers may have won an important, if conditional, battle in their push for better conditions. Instacart employees in the Chicago suburb of Skokie have voted to unionize through their local branch of United Food and Commercial Workers, g...

Walmart will test driverless grocery deliveries in Houston

Walmart is about to experiment with autonomous grocery delivery in a big way. The big-box retailer is launching a pilot program in Houston that will use Nuro's self-driving R1 vehicle to shuttle food from "select" stores to customers who've opted int...