With COVID-19 cases mounting nationwide and order volume increasing 150% year over year in recent weeks, Instacart announced that it will hire 300,000 additional full-service personal shoppers over the next three months. The hiring push will significantly increase the size of the company’s personal shopper community.
The hiring will focus on states with the highest demand, most notably California and New York, but also Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia and Ohio.
Instacart currently employs about 130,000 full-service shoppers. They are independent contractors who pick, pack and/or deliver an order from a store to a customer’s door. There are also about 12,000 in-store shoppers who pick, package and stage items at a dedicated store.
Overall, the company delivers online grocery orders for over 25,000 stores in about 5,500 North American cities. It claims that it reaches more than 85% of U.S. and Canadian households.