How the pandemic made Instacart “essential”

If you’ve been inside a grocery store recently, perhaps you noticed a number of people pushing around jam-packed carts while scrolling furiously through their phones. The pandemic is powering growth for grocery-delivery startup Instacart, and many of those shoppers are handpicking groceries for the app rather than their own households. After reportedly losing $300 million last year, San Francisco-based Instacart turned a profit for the first time in April.