Instacart hiring 12,000 Va. shoppers to meet rising demand

Online grocery delivery service is hiring 300,000 shoppers nationwide in response to COVID-19 crisis.

Published March 24, 2020 by Richard Foster

San Francisco-based online grocery delivery company Instacart announced Tuesday it would hire 300,000 more full-time shoppers, including 12,000 in Virginia, to meet the increase in demand caused by the COVID-19 crisis.

“The last few weeks have been the busiest in Instacart’s history,” said founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta in a statement. “We expect to see continued customer demand and, as a result, we’re opening up 300,000 more full-service shopper roles across North America.”

Operating in more than 5,500 U.S. cities, Instacart has seen its order volume grow by 150% since the crisis began, compared with the same time last year, with average order volumes increasing by 15%, the company said.