Friday, December 14, 2018

Instacart, Whole Foods To Cut Ties Next Year

Grocery delivery service Instacart said on Thursday that it is cutting ties with Austin-based Whole Foods, in a move which is not a surprise given the acquisition of Whole Foods by Amazon.com last year. Instacart said that it will stop delivering from Whole Foods starting in February of 2019, and that it plans to lay off about 360 of its 14,15 part time delivery employees based on Whole Foods locations at that time. Whole Foods has been pushing deliveries over to its own, Amazon Prime grocery delivery service since the acquisition closed. Before the acquisition of Whole Foods by Amazon, Whole Foods had been not only one of Instacart's biggest delivery partnerships, but also one of Instacart's major investors.