Former Amazon Exec Out To Boost Instacart

Instacart might be hoping for a little Amazon magic with a recent hire.

Re/code reports that the grocery delivery startup has brought on Mike Swartz — who oversaw warehouse operations at Amazon from 1998 to 2007 — as its first senior vice president of operations. As the story notes, the move to Instacart involves a noticeable change for Swartz (who, following his tenure at Amazon, worked for Warby Parker and then Flipkart), as its business plan by nature does not involve any warehouses.

“I have a ton of experience working inside large fulfillment centers,” Swartz told Re/code, “but when you think about the challenge of Instacart, you have this distributed network of people — it’s like an external warehouse or fulfillment operation.”

“The people that work in the field are the face of Instacart,” he continued. “There’s a lot to be done to make sure every person in the field feels connected to the company and its values.”

As the Re/code story points out, Instacart — rather than selling the grocery items that customers order on its app or website — delivers those that are sold by partners, such as Whole Foods, Costco and local grocers, in 18 U.S. markets. The startup does maintain a personnel presence at some of those locations, whose responsibility is to pick and pack orders before passing them on to one of Instacart’s delivery employees.

“When you think about changing traffic patterns, product availability, the weather, customer preferences, you realize how complex the demand modeling can be,” Swartz stated to Re/code. “The model gives you the first piece of the equation, and then you have to execute with the model.”