(NEXSTAR) — Amazon Prime members who shop at Whole Foods are about to lose one benefit of subscribing.
Whole Foods Market will be adding a $9.95 service fee for grocery deliveries, a cost that has been waived for Prime members on orders over $35. The fee kicks in on Oct. 25.
The fee will “cover operating costs, including equipment, technology and other costs associated with grocery delivery orders,” a Whole Foods spokesperson said.
Prime members can still place pickup orders from Whole Foods for free, as long as they spend more than $35. Other perks for Prime subscribers, like 10% off all grocery items that are already on sale, also aren’t going away, said a spokesperson.
“As we ramped up our delivery business and expanded our service area, Whole Foods Market delivered over three times as many orders in 2020 as we did in 2019,” a Whole Foods spokesperson told Nexstar. (The pandemic probably had something to do with that massive increase, too.)
In 2021, the company said it’s seeing more shoppers return to in-store shopping.
Amazon purchased Whole Foods in 2017 and has integrated the grocery chain into different parts of its business. For example, customers can pick up and return their Amazon packages at Whole Foods locations, and Amazon products like the Echo are sold at some stores.
A standard Amazon Prime membership costs $119 per year in the U.S.
