The system is also able to remove an item from a customer's virtual basket if it is put back on the shelves. That move led DA Davidson analyst Tom Forte to question if Amazon was “losing its soul.Instead, the cameras use computer vision – the process of allowing machines to 'see' what is in front of them and determine what an object is – to detect when an item has been taken from a shelf by a customer and who has taken it. The company also discontinued its Amazon Smile program, which allowed customers to commit a small percentage of the money they spent to designated nonprofits. The company has run into profit issues in the past year, however, and has begun to look for ways to cut costs, including laying off 18,000 workers this year.

Those prices have stayed high as inflation forces more customers to prioritize essential goods.Īmazon, meanwhile, has juggled plans to raise wages, a battle with a warehouse unionization drive, and concerns about faltering e-commerce demand.Īmazon has been building out its Prime service, offering faster deliveries of as little as two hours to Prime customers without a charge. The extra fees will land at a time when customers are already juggling higher grocery prices.

See also: Amazon’s second wave of layoffs hits thousands of employees across three states “We’re introducing a service fee on some Amazon Fresh delivery orders to help keep prices low in our online and physical grocery stores as we better cover grocery delivery costs and continue to enable offering a consistent, fast, and high-quality delivery experience,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email.

But those charges get higher for smaller orders - $6.95 for orders between $50 and $100, and $9.95 for orders less than $50. Delivery charges will be $3.95 for orders ranging between $100 and $150, Amazon said.

Download Amazon Now - Grocery