A group of Instacart shoppers is calling for customers to delete the app in solidarity with them as workers demand better treatment from the on-demand grocery startup.
The Instacart shoppers have five key demands. The first is that Instacart pay shoppers by order rather than batch, where shoppers may fulfill multiple customer orders at a store. The shoppers also want Instacart to pay them more depending on how many items are in an order, overhaul its rating system so that customer fraud does not unfairly impact workers, provide occupational death benefits and raise the default tip to at least 10% per order.
"Asking customers to delete the Instacart app in the midst of a pandemic is not something we take lightly," Gig Workers Collective wrote in a blog post today. "We understand that, for some customers, this will be a significant sacrifice. But we have spent the past five years fighting for better working conditions and firmly believe we have exhausted all less drastic options."
Instacart, which is widely expected to go public soon, appointed a new CEO, former Facebook executive Fidji Simo, back in July. Worker-activists at GWC said they were optimistic at the time but ultimately found that "Instacart's change in leadership did not change how it treats its ever-growing and increasingly vulnerable workforce. Since Fidji became CEO, pay and working conditions have sunk to an all-time low."
Instacart, however, says it is committed to creating a good experience for its shoppers, a spokesperson said in a statement to Protocol.
"We take shopper feedback very seriously and remain committed to listening to and using that feedback to improve their experience," the spokesperson said.
Climate TRACE's data show emissions at the facility-level.Image: Climate TRACE