News Instacart is firing every employee who voted to unionize

[13Gigatons]

Instacart is firing every employee who voted to unionize

Instacart is shutting down some of its in-store operations in favor of curbside pickups amid the coronavirus pandemic.

www.theverge.com

Yup...this is the problem with America.

 

[brycejones]

The "gig" economy is little better than share cropping or old piece work systems.

 

[BoomerD]

Corporations hate unions. Always been that way, always will.

 

[nakedfrog]

Instacart is firing every employee who voted to unionize

Instacart is shutting down some of its in-store operations in favor of curbside pickups amid the coronavirus pandemic.

www.theverge.com

Yup...this is the problem with America.

Corporations fucking people over?

 

[Scarpozzi]

Corporations fucking people over?

Simple economics....delivery has a lot of competition and of you pay the people who do the actual work, there's no money left for the information systems and corporation that manages the orders. Grocery stores are doing more delivery and curbside pickup in-house....Instant cart may be struggling with all the options facing their customer base.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Corporations fucking people over?

must be a day ending in y

 

[DaaQ]

Simple economics....delivery has a lot of competition and of you pay the people who do the actual work, there's no money left for the information systems and corporation that manages the orders. Grocery stores are doing more delivery and curbside pickup in-house....Instant cart may be struggling with all the options facing their customer base.

30 Billion going public, valuation, begs to differ.

 

[nickqt]

The "gig" economy is little better than share cropping or old piece work systems.

Nothing is as capitalistic as having people use their own resources to earn pennies-on-the-dollar for doing almost all of the actual work and "wealth creation".

So, everything is working as intended.

 

[SmCaudata]

Simple economics....delivery has a lot of competition and of you pay the people who do the actual work, there's no money left for the information systems and corporation that manages the orders. Grocery stores are doing more delivery and curbside pickup in-house....Instant cart may be struggling with all the options facing their customer base.

So you are saying the grocery store that basically added all these features to their existing business model without charging the fees that Instacart does somehow is better off that Instacart? Common man....

They simply want to keep costs down so they are more attractive to investors.

 

[BoomerD]

Nothing is as capitalistic as having people use their own resources to earn pennies-on-the-dollar for doing almost all of the actual work and "wealth creation".

So, everything is working as intended.

but they're still working for someone else...subject to the whims of that other party, without the benefits and protections of beine an employee.

 

[nickqt]

but they're still working for someone else...subject to the whims of that other party, without the benefits and protections of beine an employee.

Exactly. Perfect capitalism. Working as God intended.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Exactly. Perfect capitalism. Working as God intended.

capitalism jesus approves this message. blessed are the rich for they work at least 400x harder than the average employee. blessed be the capital, may it maximize shareholder value for a solid return on investment.

 

[JEDI]

Instacart is firing every employee who voted to unionize

Instacart is shutting down some of its in-store operations in favor of curbside pickups amid the coronavirus pandemic.

www.theverge.com

Yup...this is the problem with America.

didnt think that was legal?!

 

[Scarpozzi]

So you are saying the grocery store that basically added all these features to their existing business model without charging the fees that Instacart does somehow is better off that Instacart? Common man....

They simply want to keep costs down so they are more attractive to investors.

Let's take Kroger, for instance...largest grocery chain in the US. They added pickup a few years back and started rolling it out everywhere before the pandemic....started pushing delivery to keep up with Walmart. They charge delivery fees, but not always pickup fees with minimums. They have a decent app and like all the grocery stores that use the cards you swipe, they are using the app now for better JIT inventory control. They can do that much more directly, rather than leaning on 3rd parties. So, yes....for inventory control and more direct interaction with customers, it may be advantageous to handle delivery internally.

The outsiders like instant cart may not be able to compete unless it's a super busy store and the store itself can't maintain fast enough service (ie. Run out of appointments regularly).

 

[Zorba]

didnt think that was legal?!

Well, under Obama the republican senate would let approve any appointees to the NLRB so it was basically unable to function. Then Trump installed a union buster as the head of the NLRB. So for the last ~10 years there have been no consequences for ignoring the law.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Let's take Kroger, for instance...largest grocery chain in the US. They added pickup a few years back and started rolling it out everywhere before the pandemic....started pushing delivery to keep up with Walmart. They charge delivery fees, but not always pickup fees with minimums. They have a decent app and like all the grocery stores that use the cards you swipe, they are using the app now for better JIT inventory control. They can do that much more directly, rather than leaning on 3rd parties. So, yes....for inventory control and more direct interaction with customers, it may be advantageous to handle delivery internally.

The outsiders like instant cart may not be able to compete unless it's a super busy store and the store itself can't maintain fast enough service (ie. Run out of appointments regularly).

So instacart has an unsustainable business model? Sounds like it should go the way of the dodo then

 

[brycejones]

Let's take Kroger, for instance...largest grocery chain in the US. They added pickup a few years back and started rolling it out everywhere before the pandemic....started pushing delivery to keep up with Walmart. They charge delivery fees, but not always pickup fees with minimums. They have a decent app and like all the grocery stores that use the cards you swipe, they are using the app now for better JIT inventory control. They can do that much more directly, rather than leaning on 3rd parties. So, yes....for inventory control and more direct interaction with customers, it may be advantageous to handle delivery internally.

The outsiders like instant cart may not be able to compete unless it's a super busy store and the store itself can't maintain fast enough service (ie. Run out of appointments regularly).

Kroger's app is shit. That aside yes if a store has the scale to build their own solution they will be better off ultimately than relying on something like instacart. Target purchased shipt instead of building an in house platform and Ikea purchased Task Rabbit for the same reason. However the pricing models these companies (shipt and instacart) can lead to some weird outcomes. Like businesses ordering dozens of cases of water and being on the 3rd floor without elevator access and the "contractor" who has no control over their pay being paid a few bucks for all the work.

 

[brycejones]

So instacart has an unsustainable business model? Sounds like it should go the way of the dodo then

Hell Uber has acknowledged their current model is unsustainable. Their whole business plan depends on owning and booking a fully autonomous fleet. People working for a few cents per mile above IRS deduction levels is just their stop gap.

 

[bbhaag]

Nothing is as capitalistic as having people use their own resources to earn pennies-on-the-dollar for doing almost all of the actual work and "wealth creation".

So, everything is working as intended.

Indeed, I have to agree with you on this. We need to get back to our roots and learn from the barons of capitalism that made the United States a great country. The Chinese seem to have this figured out so wtf is taking us so long?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Indeed, I have to agree with you on this. We need to get back to our roots and learn from the barons of capitalism that made the United States a great country. The Chinese seem to have this figured out so wtf is taking us so long?

Im not sure what you're saying here. The Chinese capitalists abuse their workers. The Chinese workers, from what I've read, have started to demand more.

Workers in america fought for decades to unionize, and capitalists fought them for every inch. By the end of the 60's more than 70% of workers were union members.

Capitalists formulated a plan to end that, and it worked fabulously. Outsource labor to a foreign country with tons of cheap labor.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Simple economics....delivery has a lot of competition and of you pay the people who do the actual work, there's no money left for the information systems and corporation that manages the orders. Grocery stores are doing more delivery and curbside pickup in-house....Instant cart may be struggling with all the options facing their customer base.

Since they were fighting for things like vacation time and health insurance, it's pretty pathetic that a company with 10000 employees isn't providing that. This is why I support medicare for all, in a capitalist society, there's no expectations of the employer. Add mandatory vacations to the list now. Earned PTO is fine, but it should be expected. Legislate if necessary.

 

[Meghan54]

Workers in america fought for decades to unionize, and capitalists fought them for every inch. By the end of the 60's more than 70% of workers were union members.

Not in the private sector...the highest participation nationwide I've seen is around 50%. Govt. union participation is much higher...always has been, always will be.

 

[Sonikku]

Corporations hate unions. Always been that way, always will.

Corporations have the best unions in the world. They're called lobbyists.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Not in the private sector...the highest participation nationwide I've seen is around 50%. Govt. union participation is much higher...always has been, always will be.

Fair enough. My premise is that an effort was made to get rid of unions, which has really decimated the middle class, and resulting in a good portion of the crazy we have now. Social programs have only been funded enough to be band aids on gushing wounds. Capitalists see workers are an expense, and push people to believe they are, which is why people shit on others for doing "crap" jobs even if it's just where they end up.

Here's an NPR link that reports similar numbers as you:

50 Years Of Shrinking Union Membership, In One Map : Planet Money : NPR

 

[PingSpike]

Hell Uber has acknowledged their current model is unsustainable. Their whole business plan depends on owning and booking a fully autonomous fleet. People working for a few cents per mile above IRS deduction levels is just their stop gap.

Which doesn't make much sense at all to me either. Right now they dump all the cost of buying and maintaining a fleet of cars, as well as the liability of piloting them onto their contractors. They've outsourced basically all of the costs already. Assuming they some how built their own fleet of self driving cars they'd lose even more money. And they couldn't even blame the auto accidents on the rubes driving the cars anymore since that would be Uber as well.