Amazon Pauses Grocery Orders Amid “Unprecedented Demand”

Amazon has paused new grocery orders and decreased store hours at Whole Foods as it struggles to handle the “unprecedented demand” from Americans stuck in quarantine, a blog post from the company read. 

Shoppers over the weekend noticed that they had difficulty ordering groceries online due to the lack of available delivery slots. Starting Monday, new orders will be placed on a waiting list while the company works to build capacity.

“We’re increasing capacity each week and will invite new customers to shop every week,” Stephenie Landry, vice president of Grocery at Amazon, wrote in a blog post on Sunday.

“We still expect the combination of restricted capacity due to social distancing and customer demand will continue to make finding available delivery windows challenging for customers,” Landry wrote. 

Currently, Amazon operates 487 Whole Foods stores in the US. It says it will ‘adjust store hours’ for the public so its employees can fulfill online grocery orders.

Amazon has had to increase online grocery order capacity by 60% to handle the influx of demand as the pandemic has left tens of millions of Americans confined to their homes, unable to eat at restaurants or shop at malls. The world’s largest online retailer said in March that it would hire an additional 100,000 people to satisfy demand.

As the online retailer boosts capacity and preps for a post-corona world, some employees have gone on strike, demanding the company provide hazard pay and protective health equipment. 

In recent weeks, employees at Amazon fulfillment centers and Whole Foods stores have been given temperature checks. The company has said it is using advanced cleanliness protocols to decrease the spread of the virus.

As for Amazon customers who are now placed on delivery waitlists, there was no timeline in the company update on when grocery orders would be sent. Such a move could leave many people hangry.

With the lack of 3M N95 masks and people placed on Amazon waitlists for grocery orders, this could force many into supermarkets, causing the virus to spread even more.  

We noted over the weekend that a single cough from a COVID-19 carrier could disperse across several aisles, as shown in the simulation below:

Will food delivery delays force people into supermarkets or place orders on other online platforms?