Now that Amazon has largely integrated Whole Foods into its online shopping options, the online shopping giant is looking to pare down some of its more redundant offerings by shutting down its Prime Pantry delivery service.
Launched back in 2014, Prime Pantry was created to help people purchase non-perishable groceries or cleaning supplies in bulk using a low-cost flat shipping fee (or for free if you were an Amazon Prime member), with the caveat that all the items had to fit inside a single standard-sized box.
Later on in 2018, for anyone who wasn’t an Amazon Prime subscriber, Amazon gave customers an option to pay $5 a month to subscribe to Amazon Pantry in order to avoid those up front flat shipping rates.
However, following Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods in 2017 and the expansion of Prime Now and Amazon Fresh delivery options, it seems Prime Pantry had become unnecessary, and on Wednesday of this week, Amazon decided to shut down Prime Pantry for good.
In a statement made to Bloomberg, an Amazon spokesperson said “As part of our commitment to delivering the best possible customer experience, we have decided to transfer Amazon Pantry selection to the main Amazon.com store so customers can get everyday household products faster, without an extra subscription or purchase requirement.”
Amazon’s spokesperson also stated that previous Prime Pantry subscribers had been notified of Prime Pantry’s upcoming closure back in December, and should have received refunds for unused subscription time.
Even though I occasionally enjoyed loading up a Prime Pantry box full of junk food before things like the Super Bowl, given the massive expansion of Amazon’s online shopping empire over the last few years, Prime Pantry had probably been overdue to be removed.