In the heart of Europe, a tech-driven grocery revolution is taking place. Picnic, an online-only supermarket, has transformed how people shop for groceries, offering next-day delivery at the lowest price, no delivery fees, and an unparalleled environmentally friendly approach.
At the core of this transformation lies RabbitMQ, the message broker that ensures stable communication between Picnicʼs microservices. But how did they implement it? What challenges have they faced? And how do they keep operations running smoothly in a 24/7/365 business that is in hypergrowth mode? We sat down with Franklin Amorim, tech lead of the Infra team, and Paulo von Geusau, the tech analyst focused on cloud infrastructure, to get a behind-the-scenes look.
The evolution of Picnic: from start-up to proven category leader
Founded nearly a decade ago, Picnic has grown from a small idea to an international operation spanning the Netherlands, Germany, and France. To give you a sense of their scale, they currently have over 230 open positions! The company delivers groceries directly to customers' doors with small electric vehicles, reducing waste and optimizing supply chains through data-driven decisions.
“Unlike rapid grocery delivery services that promise 15-minute deliveries, Picnic focuses on families and planned shopping,ˮ Franklin explains. “Our customers schedule their grocery deliveries a day in advance, allowing us to optimize our supply chain and minimize food waste.ˮ
The company's tech ecosystem is vast. With hundreds of developers and thousands of operational employees—pickers in warehouses, runners delivering groceries, and customer service teams—it runs like a well-oiled machine. And at the center of this machine is data: real-time, high-volume, and critical for ensuring that customers receive the right groceries at the right time.
Why RabbitMQ?
As Picnic expanded, so did the complexity of its infrastructure. What started as a monolithic system back in 2015 evolved into a microservices-based architecture, requiring a robust messaging system to handle asynchronous communication. Enter RabbitMQ.
“We needed a way for our microservices—supply chain, warehouse management, customer apps, and more—to talk to each other,ˮ Franklin shares. “RabbitMQ became the bloodstream of our infrastructure. If it goes down, Picnic essentially comes to a halt."
Initially, Picnic operated it themselves using AWS OpsWorks. However, this setup proved inconvenient due to the challenges associated with maintaining and updating OpsWorks.
"After evaluating options like Docker Swarm and Nomad, we chose a SaaS solution to minimize operational overhead. Migrating to CloudAMQP significantly reduced maintenance while improving scalability and reliability. We now efficiently manage multiple market-specific clusters (NL, DE, FR, Global) with lower costs and greater stability."
Since its implementation in 2016, RabbitMQ has played a crucial role in Picnicʼs operations, handling millions—if not billions—of messages daily. Every placed order triggers messages that inform supply chain systems, warehouse fulfillment, and even data lakes for analytics.
Scaling with RabbitMQ
With great power comes great responsibility. As Picnic’s reliance on RabbitMQ grew, so did the challenges of maintaining its availability and stability.
“To maintain RabbitMQʼs uptime, we have implemented several improvements, like extensive observability tools that ensure real-time monitoring of RabbitMQ. A single outage can create a massive ripple effect, potentially leading to canceled orders and a significant revenue loss.ˮ
Another ongoing effort is unifying how RabbitMQ is implemented across the company.
“Before, we didn’t have any guidelines. This led teams to develop their own approaches,” Franklin explains. "Now, we are unifying and standardizing its use. One of our current projects is migrating from classic queues to quorum queues —while ensuring zero downtime.”
Building a future-proof system
RabbitMQ is and remains a cornerstone of Picnicʼs tech stack. Thanks to continuous improvements in observability, governance, and infrastructure optimization, the team is confident in its ability to scale even further. Franklin also notes that CloudAMQP has proven to be a reliable partner, offering consistently fast, top-tier support whenever needed.
“Weʼre still cautious when it comes to maintenance and upgrades, but weʼve come a long way,ˮ Franklin says. “With better monitoring and support from CloudAMQP, weʼre making RabbitMQ the stable and resilient message broker we rely on.ˮ
As Picnic continues to expand, RabbitMQ will remain a crucial piece of the puzzle. Whether itʼs optimizing routes for electric delivery vehicles, reducing food waste, or ensuring seamless order fulfillment, the proper infrastructure makes all the difference.
Final thoughts
Picnic’s journey is a testament to how technology can revolutionize traditional industries. By leveraging RabbitMQ, they’ve built a scalable and efficient delivery service that complements how people shop for groceries.
Looking ahead, Franklin explains that Picnic aims to expand—but at a controlled pace. “During the Covid pandemic, demand surged beyond our capacity, like with many other online companies. At that time, we were already in Germany and France, struggling to keep up while maintaining service quality.ˮ The plan is to expand further, Franklin says. “But right now, weʼre focused on delivering the best experience to our existing customers before entering new markets. For now, our expansion efforts focus on Germany and France, but our technology is ready to be rolled out around the world..ˮ
As Franklin puts it,
“At the end of the day, it’s all about making life easier for our customers. If RabbitMQ helps us achieve that, then we’re on the right track."
