Amazon announces waitlist for new online grocery shoppers

Amazon is putting new Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market customers on a waitlist due to rising demand for its grocery pickup and delivery services amid the coronavirus pandemic.

It says that it is increasing capacity and will invite new customers to shop every week.

‘While we have increased order capacity by more than 60% due to Covid-19, 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,” the e-commerce giant said in an online post.

“To help, in the coming weeks, we will launch a new feature that will allow customers to secure time to shop. This feature will give delivery customers a virtual “place in line” and will allow us to distribute the delivery windows on a first come, first served basis. Simultaneously, we will continue to add capacity as swiftly as possible.”

Amazon is also adjusting store hours for some of its Whole Foods locations to focus exclusively on fulfilling online grocery orders during this time. One of its Whole Foods stores, located in Woodland Hills, California, is also now being used temporarily as an online-only store.

Delivery windows are, meanwhile, being released throughout the day and it is now easier for customers to see when the next delivery window is available by including it on the homepages of Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market.