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bootlooped

I had said many times Amazon had too many ways to order groceries:

1. Amazon.com

2. Amazon Prime Pantry

3. Amazon Fresh

4. Whole Foods via Amazon Prime Now

5. Amazon items via Amazon Prime Now*

*I never figured out what exactly this was. Was it just Amazon.com listing reproduced in the Prime Now app? Was it Amazon Fresh and/or Prime Pantry items? Was it some other set of items?

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Don't forget, Subscribe and Save. Prime Pantry had a subscription service too, so people were very confused about what to do - Prime Pantry or Subscribe and Save - and what saves the most money. Also, with Subscribe and Save, it was and still is* confusing as to WHO the product is bought from. On low-profit price-flucting products (e.g. Case of Redbull), the price will differ AND sometimes it will be unavialable via the subscibed listing but if you searched for the item, you'd find it Prime from Amazon. The opposite also happens, when Amazon.com is clearly out of an item, yet somehow your subscribtion still makes it on time.

Honestly, just typing all that made me very confused.

At the end of the day, I don't care from who (as long as they're reputable) or how, just get me my product, in this price range, this many times per period.

*: I still use Subscribe and Safe for the 15% discount - a nice discount if 5 subscriptions are due in the same month.

> I still use Subscribe and Safe for the 15% discount - a nice discount if 5 subscriptions are due in the same month.

I have used Subscribe and Save for the better part of a decade, and I think there were maybe 2 times that my subscriptions lined up this way. I've tried delaying all non-essential subscriptions to get to the magic number, but in my family it almost never happens.

They've dropped it to 5% for just about everything. Diapers might be the only thing we still get 15%, but half the time they're out of stock anyway.

Exactly. I use Prime all the time but never have sorted out the grocery stuff, so I use Instacart.

I did once try something that iirc was Pantry. I searched for Pantry items, they mixed in a bunch of stuff that wasn't Pantry but wasn't obvious about that, and after I filled my shopping cart with various items they wanted to charge me lots of extra shipping. So I backed out and didn't bother with it anymore.

I actually prefer amazon fresh because they only show you items that are in stock. If something is out of stock, its out of stock. Where as ordering through instacart to a regular grocery store, or even the equivalent through kroger, safeway, HEB, etc, you have no idea if items are in stock. Half the time they are out of a pretty significant number of items and either are substituted or just not included entirely. Entire dinner plans can be ruined by a single ingredient being out of stock and you have no idea until after you've already ordered.

Since there are no shoppers going into the physical stores, amazon fresh can actually keep track of what they have.

Amazon Prime Now is basically direct courier delivery from the closest warehouse to your house. the app only presented things that were readily available in your area.

My understanding was that it was distinct inventory at a distinct warehouse optimized for same-day fulfillment. At least in SF years ago, they had cold items like eggs and ice cream (before the Whole Foods merger).

But whats weird is sometimes inventory would be different depending on if you were on the primenow website, or browsing amazon.com for same day or fresh. Sometimes prices were even different - like items would be on sale from primenow but full price on amazon.com.

I very much miss prime now restaurants though. It was the best, no extra fees or anything other than a tip.

Warehouse? I thought it was a Whole Foods only thing.

Prime Now was around before the WF acquisition.

Amazon Prime Now was intended to be same day delivery. Amazon Fresh usually wasn't.

AFAIK when you order whole foods, someone goes to the store and picks it up for you. They don't have nearly as accurate inventory tracking as Amazon Fresh/Prime Now do. If you order things from Prime Now, they will arrive guaranteed. (well, 90% guaranteed)

Yep. The advantage of Prime Now/Fresh is that if you put it in your cart, it's yours.

With Whole Foods online, your personal shopper is competing with in-store customers.

On a slightly related note, I've given up on Walmart for groceries. At the beginning of the pandemic, it was among the best. Now it's terrible. My last order, almost 80% of the items I wanted were either suddenly unavailable and removed from my cart at checkout, not available for delivery, or not delivered at all because they ran out just before delivery.

Two times before that, Walmart just forgot my order and left it behind. The first time it happened, my 6pm delivery was delivered at 8am the next morning, once customer service could get in touch with someone in the store. The second time, someone must have noticed it sitting there, because my 5pm delivery got delivered at 1am!

I've given up on Whole Foods delivery because of similar issues as yours. I ordered from While Foods four times. Each time I ordered there were issues. In all three orders I received incorrect items. These were not substitutions but just incorrect items I received. For example in 3 of the orders I received regular cola instead of the zero calorie cola I ordered. For the 3rd order I even sent a message to the shopper asking they confirm they grab the zero calorie version because of my past experience. Still received the regular cola. Each order I had to submit for a refund for at least 2 incorrect items. For the 4th order I received notification that it was delivered but it never actually was. I had to get a complete refund for that order.

In the East Bay Amazon via Amazon prime now carries numerous whole foods grocery items but has much more reliable inventory (it seems) and I actually get the items I order. They are missing a lot of fresh produce and curiously often have slightly different prices. Its fulfilled locally from a warehouse nearby.

They are getting rid of Prime Now and merging it into the .com as well.

It's so confusing and easy to create another cart... I've had groceries end up in the normal Amazon cart, then below that Amazon Fresh cart, and below that Whole Foods Market cart.

ya, too many ways and there are better apps too competing with Amazon pantry

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