In a statement, Instacart said it "will honor" the unionization vote pending certification of the results, and that it intended to negotiate in "good faith" on a collective bargaining agreement. The company added that it "respect[s] our employees' rights to explore unionization."

That last claim doesn't appear to be true based on evidence, however. Motherboard reported that Instacart had high-level managers visit the Mariano's store to distribute anti-union material insisting that unions would hurt pay and "exercise a great deal of control" over staff. If accurate, the approach isn't novel. Tech companies like Google, Uber and Lyft have been accused of anti-union efforts.

This isn't a night-and-day change for Instacart, at least not yet. Only 12,000 of Instacart's 142,000 shoppers are employees capable of unionizing. The rest, like at many other gig economy companies, don't have that status and the bargaining chip it provides. Still, this could spur more employees to consider unions, and that in turn could have a significant impact on Instacart working conditions across the country.