Amazon’s Whole Foods Will Charge for Delivery Beginning Oct. 25

Matt Day, Bloomberg News

An independent contractor wearing a protective mask and gloves loads Amazon Prime grocery bags into a car outside a Whole Foods Market in Berkeley, California. , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc.’s Whole Foods Market is implementing a grocery delivery fee across the U.S., rolling back a perk the retailer had offered for paying Prime members since it began offering home delivery from the organic grocer.

Shoppers who want home delivery from Whole Foods will be charged a $9.95 service fee on their orders beginning Oct. 25, a Whole Foods spokesperson said on Friday. Whole Foods started testing the delivery fee in several markets beginning in August.

“Growth of delivery drives operating costs that we do not want to shift to product prices,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Amazon, which bought the Austin, Texas-based grocer in 2017, spent the following years adding grocery delivery from Whole Foods stores. That service was offered at no charge to members of Amazon’s Prime program, which costs $119 a year in the U.S., on orders exceeding $35.

Two-hour delivery remains free for shoppers using Amazon’s Fresh grocery service.