Amazon has dumped its Prime Pantry program into the graveyard of “what used to be”. The program used to be part of the Amazon Prime membership, dedicated to non-perishables goods targeted for your cupboards. Toward the end, it required an extra subscription to be part of the program, but likely wasn’t getting enough traffic.
Instead, customers who were subscribing started the new year with a better bill. No more up-charge for Prime Pantry as everything has been rolled into the normal Amazon Prime program. A smart move by Amazon since it will help bring in more sales for these items while also strengthening their grip on the industry as a leader in retail and delivery.
Delivery may also have had a lot to do with this. Amazon has had a lot of time to tweak their own delivery service to work best for them. Something that has saved them a lot of money vs using third-party services like UPS and FedEx. Therefore, they have a lot more control over logistics, making it easier to get shipments to customers quickly and efficiently.
Now, everyone with an Amazon Prime membership has access to free shipping on all of the qualifying items that used to be part of the Prime Pantry program. Making it much easier to take advantage of what’s out there. Something that has to have grocery stores sweating it out due to the increased competition it will likely lead to.
