Last Thursday, hundreds of New Yorkers wearing chokers, face-jewels, and '90s band T-shirts lined up outside Terminal 5 to see Third Eye Blind. The concert was free—so long as you showed the bouncers that you had downloaded Instacart.
The event was the culmination of Instacart's "Summer Like It's 1999" ad campaign, but it could have also been deemed "Hot Pay Disparity Summer." Since the City Council passed a package of legislation in July that would force app companies like Instacart to pay grocery delivery workers a wage of $21.44/hour, the country's most popular grocery delivery app, which reported $3.3 billion in revenue last year, has lobbied hard to prevent the legislation from going into effect. Instacart created an astroturf organization called "New Yorkers For Affordable Groceries," placed ads and op-eds across local media claiming that the bill would raise the cost of grocery deliveries and hurt local grocery stores, and even threatened legal action.
Instacart's pressure campaign initially worked: Mayor Eric Adams, going against his administration's initial position, vetoed the bill in mid-August. On Wednesday, the City Council will vote in an attempt to override the mayor's veto. And while Instacart has recently unveiled a different rationale for opposing the measures, they're still fighting the legislation.
Two roommates who were in line outside Terminal 5, Violet Velikova, 24, and Sana Sagroula, 25, were surprised to learn that Instacart was working hard to block the law that would increase pay for their workers.
"I think that delivery drivers deserve more," Velikova said. "It's a service and it's a laborious job," Sagroula added.
