Shipt reportedly laid off 3.5% of filled positions and closed "many" open positions Tuesday.
That's according to a statement from Molly Snyder, chief communications officer at Shipt.
"As we evaluated the promising future of the company, we carefully reviewed the needs of our business and our team," the statement said. "Our business and industry have changed dramatically in the past few years, and to keep Shipt competitive and healthy, we ultimately made the difficult decision to eliminate select positions across the organization."
Shipt did not confirm how many of those roles were based in Birmingham.
The layoffs are on par with current trends. According to a recent TechCrunch article, a fresh wave of layoffs is taking the tech world by storm. In January, nearly 90,000 tech workers were laid off, but things were looking up by September as that number had dipped to less than 5,000, according to the article. Unfortunately, October brought a new wave of layoffs.
"These decisions are never easy to make," the statement continues," and we have worked for months to do everything we could to avoid having to take this step."
All impacted team members will have the opportunity to remain on payroll through November, according to the statement. Following that, they will be provided with severance packages that include outplacement support and benefits continuation.
The news comes shortly after it was revealed in August that Shipt would not receive incentives from the state due to a termination requested by Shipt, as it no longer expected to have the jobs it committed to in the agreement with the state.
In 2018, Shipt made deals with the state, Jefferson County and city of Birmingham to receive incentives in exchange for keeping its headquarters in the Magic City and growing its workforce.
The state of Alabama and Shipt signed a project agreement related to the company’s expansion in Birmingham in 2018 that qualified the company for incentives under the Alabama Jobs Act.
Pending finalization of the deal in 2018, the state of Alabama was prepared to provide a jobs credit valued at nearly $14.5 million over 10 years, an investment credit valued at $1.5 million over 10 years and AIDT services and support valued at $604,960. Those incentives were tied to achievements of project milestones, including hiring 881 employees.
However, Shipt never received any Jobs Act incentives from the state, according to Stefania Jones, manager of governmental relations and marketing with the Alabama Department of Commerce. The agreement was terminated by mutual consent in March 2023. The termination was requested by Shipt, as the company no longer expected to have the jobs it committed to in the agreement, Jones said.
In a statement, regarding the incentives in August, Shipt called the state and local governments' economic development support a key factor in Shipt's growth.
The city of Birmingham had paid the company $1.5 million as of late August.
The company's agreement with the county lapsed in 2020. The county originally entered an agreement stating it would pay up to $720,000 to Shipt for individual jobs paying more than $60,000 at $2,000 per job created in years 2018-2020. Shipt requested payments totaling $254,000 for jobs created during those years, a county spokesperson said.
Payments made were $148,000 for 74 jobs created in 2018-2019 and $106,000 for 53 jobs created in 2020. This doesn’t mean Shipt only hired 127 people during this time, but that it submitted for payment on 127 jobs paying more than $60,000.
