An app's worth is partly the data it's got on you, the customer

Sep 18, 2023
Retail apps like Instacart are valued more and more for their consumer data — and advertising possibilities.
"You search for yogurt, and there's, like, a Chobani ad," says Sucharita Kodali of Forrester. "It's more lucrative to sell an ad than it is to actually, in many cases, sell the yogurt."
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Could food delivery apps help close the "grocery gap"?

May 16, 2022
A report finds that online grocery delivery is offered in many areas where people lack access to fresh, quality food - but not everyone can take advantage of it.
Million of Americans live in neighborhoods without convenient access to a brick-and-mortar grocery store with fresh food. Research from the Brookings Institution suggests online grocery delivery could help bridge that gap.
Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Why superfast grocery delivery is coming

Dec 7, 2021
DoorDash is launching a DashMart service in New York City that promises grocery delivery in 15 minutes or less. It already has competition.
A New York City distribution center for Buyk, a 15-minute grocery delivery service,
Spencer Platt via Getty Images

Customers want it now, and some apps are catering to those desires

Oct 21, 2020
Customers want their stuff on the same day they buy it. Instacart can make that happen for some smaller retailers.
An Instacart shopper selects an item at a Wegmans grocery store in Woodbridge, New Jersey, in August.
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An algorithm determines gig workers' pay — and they don't like it

Jul 13, 2020
Gig workers' livelihoods are increasingly ruled by mysterious — and unpredictable — software.
Drivers protest Uber and Lyft pay policies at LAX in 2019.
Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

Costco and Instacart expand deliveries to include prescription drugs

Apr 20, 2020
It's an effort to compete with drugstore chains and pharmacy startups.
About 90% of prescriptions are filled in person. Will the pandemic change that?
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"Tip baiting" is just the latest battle over tips among gig workers

Apr 10, 2020
Gig platforms have long been ambivalent about encouraging tips that many workers depend on.
An Uber Eats delivery worker on March 19 in New York City.
Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Demanding better COVID-19 protections, workers nationwide plan walkouts

Amazon, Instacart and Whole Foods face backlash from workers concerned about safe working conditions.
Instacart employee Monica Ortega holds bags of groceries she picked up from a supermarket for delivery to a customer on March 19, 2020.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

Social media fury over Instacart pay scale raises industry-wide concerns

Feb 8, 2019
Instacart and other apps are competing for consistent customers, while worker pay is inconsistent.
This illustration photo taken on December 22, 2012, in Paris, shows credit cards in a miniature toy shopping cart.
JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images

Instacart workers feel sting of pay restructure

May 11, 2016
Recent pay changes have left some Instacart workers rethinking the gig economy
Fernando Elvira loves delivering for Instacart but he hopes to someday get hired as an actual employee.
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