$9.95 Prime / Whole Foods Grocery Delivery Fee Beginning Aug 30

Interesting. Has there been a fee previously? Or has it been completely free? I have never used a grocery delivery service but I know all the local big grocery stores offer it - for a fee.

Poor amazon. They must be so hurting for cash.


I kid.

They have single handedly driven up the cost of living in Seattle so drastically that it's almost to the point of San Fransisco.

Under $35 1 hour $9.99; 2 hour $4.99
Southern Ohio

I used their delivery service since Covid began, high risk household and we've had covid. I live in California and the delivery cost is covered under our prime membership cost, I haven't received this message but even if I do I will pay for it. It's worth it to me although you're right they make mistakes and don't chose good substitutes, but every time they have given me a refund for their error. The food isn't all from whole foods it's from the amazon store also. I still get some food from my regular grocers when my daughters goes or on the occassional trip out the house I'll pick up a few items. But I highly rely on the amazon delivery and in California all of the grocery delivery services seem to charge, none of them I know of are free, instacart charges and the big grocery stores charge if they have their own service and if they don't they use instacart who charges.

Sorry if this fee inconveniences you and makes it hard for you, you may find that it's worth it to you depending on how often you use them, I on average use them once a month although I have at least twice in one month but I make big purchases so usually I don't have to more than once. And with the fee if it comes to my area, I would make sure to only order once a month. Because on top of that I tip the delivery people so lots of money going out the door. over $35 with prime membership free under $35 there is a fee. I always spend $100's so no fee.

It's worth it to me because to much traffic, to many people in the store who don't keep their distance, I can be doing something else with my time, it saves me aggravation, I don't like shopping so clicking on the computer and just waiting is a save for me in lots of ways. Even before this I shopped for a lot of things via internet, groceries just wasn't one of those things.

We started getting supermarket deliveries because of Covid. In the UK it is £2-£4 depending on time slot chosen. We stick to the cheap evening time slots (less traffic in central London and easier to park). We will probably continue to get heavy stuff delivered like wine, soft drinks and laundry detergent because we don't drive. We used to walk to the shops daily and will probaby buy produce daily when more restrictions are lifted.

Since Covid, I started using a service called Farmdrop for organic free range meat and sustainably farmed fish. I will probably continue to use them because the meat is superior to stuff I find in the local supermarket. They also do hard to find stuff like duck gizzards, bones for making stock, retired dairy cow steak, whole sides of salmon. Delivery is free when the order is big enough so I fill up the freezer once a month.

I am in a big city and there are a lot of start up businesses that since covid offer delivery grocery delivery services within 15 minutes of ordering. A friend of mine works for one of these start ups and although they are more expensive than visiting the supermarket at normal price, all of these start ups are more concerned about gaining market share than turning a profit at this point. They offer a lot of very deep discounts. So I would advise people who live somewhere that has this type of start up business to subscribe to their newsletter to be notified of discounts.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56720044

HabitRabbit wrote: »

I've don't know about Whole Foods (none near me), but I've used the pickup service at my local Walmart (in Canada) at various times during the pandemic and while the service is free above a certain amount, the online price is higher than the in-store price, so I think they get you one way or another.

Yep. On a few occasions over the past year I thought it would be really, really nice to just do pickup at a few of our stores or even get delivery, but I couldn't justify paying the extra cost - I was willing to pay a service fee and a driver tip in the case of delivery, but for some reason having those costs added directly to the item, when I knew I could just pay 50 cents less if I went into the store, created some kind of insurmountable psychological barrier in my brain.

I haven't yet got a notification that they are adding a fee in Chicago.

I did delivery a bunch during covid (also some pickup), but have noticed it's often harder to get a slot now, so have actually gone to WF the last few months.

I'm a chef, I like to shop and I like to hand select, so it's a no go for me.

lemurcat2 wrote: »

I get meat currently from an Alaskan fish delivery order plus a farm subscription and veg/fruit from the farmer's market and my garden, so have been going into WF rarely and mostly for cottage cheese (an obsession)+avocados+pepperoncini peppers+some premade soups or rice and beans (the latter 2 in case I get in case sick/am crazy busy at work and need no fuss meals), plus my canned beans and tomatoes, based on when my pantry is low. I've been getting oils and vinegars from a more local store and same with spices. WF also still has stuff like tofu, and some dry goods. But out of season I buy a ton of produce (fresh and frozen) from WF.

Back in the day I used to impulse buy a lot at WF (inc lots of grains), but decluttering my pantry + covid era has taught me.

Sorry to divert from the thread topic, but I'm intrigued by this!

Most of our stuff is like this too - we get most of our "whole foods" (heh) from local farms, and use Costco and Aldi for shelf-stable, frozen, and canned stuff, plus the occasional trip to a regular, ethnic, or specialty grocery store for weird items.

I used to get chicken from the back of a truck a couple times per year (it sounds sketchy but it was AWESOME and I'm so sad they went out of business ) but this fish delivery business sounds interesting. What kind of stuff do you get from them and is it reasonably priced? We don't eat much fish because I'm just not impressed by the quality for what I'm expected to pay around here. But if I found a decent supplier within our budget I'd give it a try.

kshama2001 wrote: »

I'm south of Boston, MA and received this email today:

"Dear Prime Member,

We are writing to let you know about an upcoming change to Prime grocery delivery benefits at Whole Foods Market in your area. Starting August 30, 2021, delivery orders from Whole Foods Market in your area will include a $9.95 service fee."

I was curious if those of you who use this service in different parts of the country got this message as well.

I'm currently 20 minutes away from the store and will likely stop using the delivery service once this fee is implemented. Plus, they've historically been terrible about not knowing that items are out of stock until it's too late for me to make changes.

@kshama2001 - Manhattan here.. order Whole Foods/prime. I haven’t seen any changes to fees here or gotten any notifications. It’s free delivery if total over $45 in my neck of woods.

Unsure why they are making that prime change in Boston.. seems there are a lot of subscribers here on MFP …

Oh update: just read this online - apparently to keep grocery prices down? Bleh.

“ Again, Amazon is only testing the new fee program in six markets (greater Detroit, Boston and Chicago areas and in Providence, R.I., Portland, Maine, and Manchester, N.H.) beginning Aug. 30, so it could soon find the cost of lost customers too high to roll it out nationally.”

penguinmama87 wrote: »

lemurcat2 wrote: »

I get meat currently from an Alaskan fish delivery order plus a farm subscription and veg/fruit from the farmer's market and my garden, so have been going into WF rarely and mostly for cottage cheese (an obsession)+avocados+pepperoncini peppers+some premade soups or rice and beans (the latter 2 in case I get in case sick/am crazy busy at work and need no fuss meals), plus my canned beans and tomatoes, based on when my pantry is low. I've been getting oils and vinegars from a more local store and same with spices. WF also still has stuff like tofu, and some dry goods. But out of season I buy a ton of produce (fresh and frozen) from WF.

Back in the day I used to impulse buy a lot at WF (inc lots of grains), but decluttering my pantry + covid era has taught me.

Sorry to divert from the thread topic, but I'm intrigued by this!

Most of our stuff is like this too - we get most of our "whole foods" (heh) from local farms, and use Costco and Aldi for shelf-stable, frozen, and canned stuff, plus the occasional trip to a regular, ethnic, or specialty grocery store for weird items.

I used to get chicken from the back of a truck a couple times per year (it sounds sketchy but it was AWESOME and I'm so sad they went out of business ) but this fish delivery business sounds interesting. What kind of stuff do you get from them and is it reasonably priced? We don't eat much fish because I'm just not impressed by the quality for what I'm expected to pay around here. But if I found a decent supplier within our budget I'd give it a try.

Here is the service we use, been very happy with this! https://wildalaskancompany.com/

I buy meat and produce in person but everything else gets ordered from Walmart with their curbside pickup. I started doing this during Covid and still do it. Saves me a lot of time and when I had some back and knee issues this summer it kept me from needing to use the scooters in the store while I healed.

I am a Prime member but there just hasn't been enough that I need to get from WF to justify ordering.

sgt1372 wrote: »

Just realized that I previously responded to this thread. Dup reponse deleted.

How do you delete responses?