It's pretty big. Whole Foods' market cap is under $10B.
Plus I don't think Instacart is really in the grocery business. They are in the delivery business and grocery stores are their warehouses. I really have a hard time seeing $3+ billion of value there.
Maybe they are thinking about getting into the grocery business though.
WF is a terrible example because organic, vegan, sustainable are now basically mainstream. I can go to almost any medium town in Texas and find a natural food store to make hummus from scratch. WF has to up the ante by doing more local, exclusive, seasonable, sustainable and experimental/incubator products to differentiate from traditional mainstream grocers and also competitors like Trader Joe's.
But the bigger issue with Instacart / Google Shopping Express is they're effectively value-add middlemen whom can be cut-out, undercut, gamed and so on. WalMart, Safeway/Vons, Amazon, Costco have the muscle ( distribution and capital) to squash them like Mr. Wonderful's proverbial cockroaches.
Plus I don't think Instacart is really in the grocery business. They are in the delivery business and grocery stores are their warehouses. I really have a hard time seeing $3+ billion of value there.
Maybe they are thinking about getting into the grocery business though.