With Whole Foods in Amazon’s basket, Instacart has finally ditched its old partner

Instacart announced that it will end its relationship with Whole Foods after spending the last year and a half gathering partners who are not owned by Amazon.

After sharing shoppers for 4 years, Instacart is finally taking Whole Foods out if its cart by terminating its partnership with the all-natural grocer. After Amazon purchased Whole Foods last year, it was only a matter of time until Whole Foods would become exclusive. 

With Whole Foods in Amazon’s basket, Instacart has finally ditched its old partner

But, in the year since Amazon put a ring on its supermarket soul mate, Instacart has shopped for new partners.

Turning the ’Cart around

Whole Foods signed a 5-year contract with Instacart in 2016, which should have preserved the partnership through 2021. 

But after Amazon’s $13.7B acquisition, it became clear Instacart was no longer Whole Foods’ #1. 

So Instacart, not happy being anyone’s side-service, started taking matters into its own carts.

A strong, independent service

In the last 18 months, Instacart added several grocery giants to its cart (Kroger, Sam’s Club, Walmart Canada) and raised $871m in new funding to ensure it can roll on its own 4 wheels.

Now, since Whole Foods stores account for only 76 of Instacart’s 15k grocery locations, Instacart’s revenue is expected to drop by less than 5%.  

Instacart, which is valued at $7.6B, failed to announce the exact day that it would stop taking orders from Whole Foods. So, if you’re reading this — stock up on your Probiotic Kale-Turmeric Smoothies while you can!!!

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