To add to your analysis, Instacart is also very dependent on a large team of &#x27;staff&#x27; (be it contractors or employees) to provide its service.  A major cornerstone of low-margin companies like Amazon is high levels of automation and standardization to reduce the number of humans involved.<p>That said, this is a relatively small round of layoffs focused on a team not directly related to the product (recruiting), so it&#x27;s not really proof that they are in trouble yet.