MINNEAPOLIS, MN - Instacart, the San Francisco-based grocery delivery service, has let go of all its drivers in the Minneapolis just six months after entering the region.
“Given the market’s size and geographic layout, we’ve found it difficult to efficiently provide enough opportunities for delivery drivers to receive orders,” Instacart wrote to the area’s drivers in an email last Friday, according to BuzzFeed News. “As our market has evolved, we’ve found that the delivery driver service is not the best fit for the Minneapolis market at this time.”
This is not, however, to say that the company is giving up on the market as a whole just yet.
An anonymous source close to the company reported to BuzzFeed that it is still operating in the area and “growing rapidly,” but that those currently taking the orders placed by consumers online will also be the ones to deliver them.
As for Minneapolis drivers, currently listed as independent contractors, the dismissal goes into effect April 3rd.
As we reported previously, Instacart moved into Minneapolis as part of a new partnership with Target last September, one of several new retail partnerships the company has made in the last year.
Keep checking in with AndNowUKnow as we continue to report on this and all other changes influencing the buy-side.
