Amazon Prime users will be charged extra for delivery at Whole Foods

According to foreign media reports, Amazon Prime members received an email notification on Friday , stating that starting from October 25 this year , every Whole Foods delivery order placed by Amazon Prime users across the United States will include a delivery fee of $9.95.

A Whole Foods spokesperson said the new fee is primarily used to cover operational costs related to delivery, such as equipment and technology, and will not increase grocery prices, noting that Whole Foods delivered three times as many orders in 2020 as it did in 2019. The news suggests that Amazon Prime users will soon say goodbye to Whole Foods' free delivery service.

In August, Amazon Whole Foods launched a pilot program to increase delivery fees in several cities , including Boston , the Chicago area , Portland, Maine , Providence , Rhode Island , New Hampshire , Manchester , and Detroit . These cities had already charged a $9.95 service fee for one-hour delivery orders before the fee increase was rolled out nationwide .

In 2017 , Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion , and the following year, it launched a two-hour free grocery delivery service. Prime members also enjoy benefits such as free one-hour grocery pickup service .

The news comes as U.S. consumers are paying more for food. Grocery prices have risen 3% over the past year, according to the latest data measured by the Consumer Price Index, the country's main inflation gauge , while restaurant prices have risen 4.7% over the same period.

For years, it was often assumed that online shopping was immune to price increases, but that changed amid the pandemic. Online prices rose 3.1% in August compared with the same month last year , with groceries up 1.64%, according to the Adobe Digital Economy Index, an analysis of visits to retail websites. That compares to an average increase of 0.51% between 2015 and 2019.

It seems that under the epidemic situation, American users will increase their shopping spending on food and grocery categories both online and offline.

Amazon Prime users

Whole Foods will add a delivery fee to your purchases