Online retailer Amazon doesn’t want you to head out for grocery shopping. In this day and age of modern technology, why should you? It already offers a service called AmazonFresh in select U.S. cities, allowing customers to order fresh produce dairy products and quickly-perishable items while promising next-day delivery. Amazon even has a gadget called “Dash” which lets you easily create grocery lists. Now it puts your local grocery stores in its crosshairs. Through the newly launched Amazon Pantry service, the retailer is allowing Prime subscribers in the U.S. to purchase 45 pounds of groceries for a flat $5.99 delivery fee.
Before you begin to think that AmazonFresh and Amazon Pantry are essentially the same, they’re actually not. The Pantry service is meant for packaged goods and suppliers whereas AmazonFresh is only for fresh, quickly-perishable items. Another major difference is that Amazon Pantry is available for all Prime subscribers in 48 states of the U.S.
Pantry users have to stay within the 45 pound weight limit so as they shop for products a virtual Amazon cardboard box will display how much room they have left. One might think that the $5.99 fee on top of Prime subscription is exorbitant given that Prime deliveries are usually supposed to be free, however Amazon says its “cost prohibitive to ship for free” as Pantry lets customers stock up on heavier and bulkier items that don’t ship for free.
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