How Civil Unrest Curtailed Amazon and Grocery Delivery Just As Covid Accelerated It

Amazon and other delivery services report they are not operating in areas they deem unsafe or under curfew.

This has provided relief to deliverers fearful of being targeted by police - or by rioters - but has added another layer of complexity to consumers increasingly reliant on deliveries due to the pandemic. The question is whether this uncertainty is perceived as temporary and understandable - or detracts from the services' reputation and future growth. JL

Lauren Zumbach reports in the Chicago Tribune:

Delivery services like Amazon, Instacart and Shipt have scaled back services in cities amid ongoing unrest and looting. That could make grocery delivery tougher to come by at a time when consumers, concerned about COVID-19, have been relying on the services to avoid unnecessary trips to the store. Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, said it adjusted routes or scaled back delivery options in a handful of cities. “In this whole pandemic, people have been understanding of all sorts of crazy stuff. Mostly they’re just grateful to get the delivery.”

Delivery services like Amazon, Instacart and Shipt say they have scaled back services in cities including Chicago amid ongoing unrest and looting.

Fallout from the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd sparked protests and civil unrest in cities across the country, including Chicago. A 9 p.m. curfew is in place in the city, where some damaged stores remain closed and others have reduced their hours.

That could make grocery delivery tougher to come by at a time when consumers, concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic, have been relying on the services to avoid unnecessary trips to the store.

Shipt, which delivers products from stores including Target and CVS, has temporarily suspended service in the downtown Chicago area and other neighborhoods where stores it works with have closed. In other areas, including the suburbs, it adjusted hours to comply with local curfews or earlier closing times at stores offering the service, the company said in an email.

Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, said it adjusted routes or scaled back delivery options to ensure workers’ safety in a handful of cities, including Chicago.

On Sunday, Instacart Tweeted that it suspended operations in select regions and would “cautiously re-open those locations slowly, once it is safe to do so.”

Instacart did not respond to questions about whether Chicago was one of the affected areas. On Tuesday, it let shoppers schedule deliveries to various city neighborhoods on Wednesday or Thursday.

Russell Lodarek, owner of Big Apple Finer Foods in Lincoln Park, said some of his delivery drivers were forced to skip downtown deliveries Saturday afternoon, when they arrived at blocked-off streets where drivers could see people throwing rocks.

Big Apple Finer Foods delivers about 90 orders a day, mostly to customers in the Loop and Gold Coast. On Sunday and Monday, Lodarek said he was encouraging customers who live in portions of downtown where access was restricted to come pick up their orders but hadn’t stopped making deliveries.

“If I thought they were threatened or in danger, obviously I wouldn’t send them down there,” he said. “For now, during the day, I think it’s pretty safe.”

The store has been closing two hours early, at 8 p.m., since Sunday. People were still shopping late but the streets looked deserted, and he wanted to get his employees home before the 9 p.m. curfew.

Mercato, a company that handles delivery for about 1,000 independent grocery stores across the country, said a few stores in cities, including Chicago, closed for a day or two. All have since reopened, though some stores are closing early so employees don’t have to leave late, meaning fewer options for evening deliveries, said CEO Bobby Brannigan.

Some customers had already placed orders before stores changed hours and had to reschedule deliveries, but customers were generally understanding, Brannigan said.

“In this whole pandemic, people have been understanding of all sorts of crazy stuff. Mostly they’re just grateful to get the delivery,” he said.