Instacart continues to deliver. Demand for delivery services continues to rise as the world continues to come to terms with the pandemic.

In a statement on its Medium channel, the on-demand grocery service detailed plans to continue to support its current gig-force (referred to as "shoppers" by the tech firm). In that piece they reveal hiring 300,000 people last month, as well as plans to continue this trajectory with the addition of 250,000 additional shoppers, particularly in high-demand areas such as California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and Toronto. Instacart has grown its shopper network by over 250% since March.

To put that in perspective, prior to March, Instacart had 200,000 shoppers in its network (up from 130,000 since the start of the year). If this next wave of hiring is successful, there will be 3.5X increase of Instacart shoppers over the course of roughly 60 days. That comes out to just over 9,000 shoppers added per day, for a total of 750,000. The company also announced earlier this month that it is more than doubling its care team, from 1,200 agents to 3,000 agents. Instacart’s Care organization supports customers, shoppers and retail partners.

• In addition to the new workers, Instacart is also implementing “wellness checks” for workers through its app, and making safety kits available for employees to order through the Instacart Shopper app.
• Instacart will also be adding extended sick pay for workers who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed in quarantine by a doctor.
• The added safety and employee policies come in response to Instacart employee strikes for sick and hazard pay and increased safety measures earlier this month, Engadget reports.

Overall, Instacart delivers online grocery orders from more than 25,000 stores in over 5,500 cities in North America. The company partners with 350-plus national, regional and local retailers, reaching more than 85% of U.S. households and 70% of Canadian households. Their next surge in hiring will focus on several key regions to start, including regions in California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and Toronto.

In a recent interview with Credit Suisse food retail analyst Judah Frommer, Instacart president Nilam Ganenthiran described the past few weeks at the company:

"This is well beyond Black Friday," he said, comparing the surge in demand to one of the retail sector's busiest shopping days of the year. "Every day is a new Black Friday for us."

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