Instacart Searches for a Direction as Its Pandemic Boom Fades

[brooklynite]

New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Last summer, Instacart had a rough reality check. After a year of explosive, pandemic-driven growth for its grocery delivery business, people were returning to grocery stores. Sales slowed. New customers were harder to find. It could have been the kiss of death for a start-up that expected to grow very fast.

So Apoorva Mehta, Instacart’s co-founder and chief executive, asked Uber and DoorDash, two top competitors, if they were interested in acquiring or partnering with his company, said eight people with knowledge of the talks. Nothing came of the discussions, and in early July Mr. Mehta said he would leave the top job at his company but stay on as chairman.

The tumultuous summer set the stage for Instacart’s current uncertainty as it tries to avoid becoming another pandemic boom company that has fizzled, like Peloton or Zoom. Mr. Mehta’s replacement, Fidji Simo, a member of Instacart’s board and a former executive at Facebook, now has to lead the company against competition that has become tougher since the pandemic started. She also has to manage skeptical investors who have been waiting at least four years for Instacart to go public.

When exactly that will happen became murkier last month when, in a rare move, Instacart said it was slashing its valuation by 40 percent to $24 billion, citing the “market turbulence” that has roiled technology companies. In addition, top executives have left, including two presidents, one of whom resigned after just three months.

[Demsrule86]

1. Instacart has the worst customer service...they decided for some reason I needed a

'security' check so they didn't deliver my groceries...I was sick at the time with Covid. I was instructed to send in a copy of my license. Not doing that as it is a security risk. Now I had ordered from them before often. I called the store in question after getting nowhere with Instacare and they did nothing so I canceled Instacart and have not been back to the store since then. The Instacart representative was rude...obnoxious really.

[dalton99a]

2. Pandemic stocks are no longer in fashion