Whole Foods and Instacart end partnership, 56 workers let go

Whole Foods and Instacart announced earlier this month that the two companies have "mutually agreed" to end their delivery services partnership, effective May 15. As a result, 56 Philadelphia-area workers have been laid off.

The end of the Whole Foods - Instacart relationship did not come as a surprise to industry analysts, many of whom predicted the change since Amazon purchased Whole Foods in 2017. Whole Foods currently offers Prime Now, a one- and two-hour delivery service in more than 60 U.S. cities, including Philadelphia.

Instacart remains a strong presence in the Philadelphia market, as it has relationships with Reading Terminal Market, CVS, Aldi, Sprouts Farmers Market, Sam's Club, Wegmans, Acme, and Costco. Overall, the company is in 5,500 cities and delivers from nearly 20,000 stores.

"The U.S. is nearly a $1 trillion grocery market, and last year we saw almost every major grocer in North America bring their delivery business online in a significant way," said Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta in a statement last year. "We believe we're in the early stages of a massive shift in the way people buy groceries, and we expect that one in five Americans will be shopping for their groceries online in the next five years."

Instacart partners with Giant, Wegmans

Instacart announced that it has joined forces with Giant and Wegmans to bring online shopping and delivery to customers in select areas for the two food retailers. Giant's partnership will benefit Philadelphia-area customers, and the service for Wegmans will be available in Northern Virginia and Maryland.

With Instacart, customers in the service areas can order groceries online from Giant or Wegmans for a small fee, and have them delivered within the same day,  often within one hour.

Giant already offers Peapod, a similar service to Instacart, but Peapod only guarantees delivery for the next day.

Instacart has served Philadelphia customers since 2014, when it signed on with Whole Foods and Reading Terminal Market.

For Wegmans, the Instacart deal represents the first online ordering and delivery offering from the company. It is expected that additional markets will be added in the near future.