One of Amazon’s finest benefits for Prime members in some regions has been free two-hour grocery deliveries for years, but there was always a catch: purchases with a total under $35 would be subject to a $5 delivery fee.
Most people haven’t had an issue with this barrier because, in most cases, they could avoid the fee by adding one or two more items to their cart. The days of free delivery, though, may be coming to an end since you’re an Amazon Fresh devotee because the firm is getting ready to introduce some pricey new pricing.
Amazon will start charging escalating shipping fees for Fresh deliveries under $150 on February 28.
Customers already pay $15 monthly or $140 annually for a Prime subscription, which is necessary to use the online grocery service in the first place. You will be assessed a $4 fee for purchases between $100 and $150. Any order under $50 will pay a hefty $10 shipping surcharge, while orders between $50 and $100 will incur an extra $7 charge. Oof.
Amazon provided customers with an explanation in an email that was sent to Prime members on Friday, claiming that the new charges will help keep costs low in both its online and brick-and-mortar locations.
In order to better cover the costs of grocery delivery and maintain our ability to provide a reliable, quick, and high-quality delivery experience, we are bringing a service fee on certain Amazon Fresh delivery orders. This will help keep prices low in both our physical and online grocery stores.
Fair enough, Amazon Fresh didn’t come with a free trial and you had to pay $15 a month on top of your Amazon Prime membership fees until October 2019 when the two services were combined. Even still, it’s fairly absurd to hear the biggest firm on the planet assert that its new levies are the only way to keep prices low, especially considering that this strategy entails increasing costs for the great majority of customers.
Grocery delivery is only available in a few markets, but since Amazon bought Whole Foods, it has gradually become more commonplace.
It’s only the most recent cost-cutting technique that Amazon has used. The firm boosted the annual subscription fee for Prime to $140 almost a year ago, at the time citing increasing investments in streamed exclusives such Thursday night NFL games. More recently, Amazon terminated its Smile charity programme and fired over 18,000 staff members, the majority of whom worked for Comixology, for similarly flimsy justifications. You cannot claim that the business lacks consistency.
If this makes you wonder whether your Amazon Prime membership is worthwhile, you can find solace in all these other special benefits, such as Prime Video and Prime Gaming along with Amazon Luna, and those delicious twice-yearly Prime Day discounts. Who understands how long those will remain unchanged, of course.
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