There's Something Rotten in Amazon's Pantry
I've been an Amazon Prime member for a while now. In 2014, I placed 98 orders on Amazon.com, and most were Prime-eligible. I rarely buy anything until I check to see if I can get it in two days or less, for free. It's probably the closest thing to an addiction I'll ever have.
That said, I can't recall every purchasing items that you'd find in a pantry or food closet. The only semi-perishable item I can remember buying a few times was iced tea mix I had trouble finding in the store on a consistent basis.
Amazon launched Prime Pantry, a spin-off of its Prime service that focuses on everyday essential items, last spring. However, since I was temporarily living in the burbs, the service was unavailable to me, and the Prime Pantry branding was nowhere to be found when I was logged in to my Amazon account. That all changed when I moved back to the New York City area and made my first Amazon Pantry purchase. The floodgates opened, and my frustration began.
Amazon alerted me to Pantry's availability via email, but as someone who just joined the local BJs, there was no immediate need or desire to give it a try.
Then one day, after discovering my brand of soda was out of stock at the big box store, I hopped on Amazon and saw that not only did it have my precious Coke Zero in stock, but each 12-pack was considerably less than any grocery store in the area. So I began to fill my Amazon Pantry box, which let me know what percentage the box was filled as I shopped. I decided to toss a few other items into the box to get it to 100 percent, and was feeling pretty damn special about myself. Then I was smacked in the face with a good ol' dose of "if it's too good to be true, it is."
I failed to notice that Prime Pantry, while seemingly part of the Prime family of services, did not offer free shipping on this box of goodies. In fact, it cost $5.99. When you're used to paying zero shipping on items like televisions and other big ticket items, and then getting that item two days later, you become accustomed to a certain lifestyle. As far as I was concerned, $5.99 could have been $19.99 or more. As an Amazon Prime addict, paying for shipping just feels...dirty.
The worst shocker was yet to come. I was coming around on the idea that getting a 45-pound box of groceries delivered to me for under six bucks was actually a good deal considering how quickly I'd get it. But then I glanced at the delivery time of my box of wonders. Note: anyone with a history of heart trouble should think about not continuing. OK? Here we go.
Say Whaaaaaat?
And at that moment, a little part of me died. And then I just got angry. Why on earth would I, an Amazon Prime member, pay Amazon to ship me something that I won't get for 1-4 business days? That is not an Amazon Prime service, that is a snake oil operation at its finest. In fact, I thought it was such BS, that it made me, for the first time ever, to re-assess whether having Prime going forward was going to make me happy.
The honest truth is that I'll likely keep the service, although Amazon really needs to think about splitting its digital services like Instant Video and its delivery operations. But one thing is for sure, it really needs to re-tool Prime Pantry and make it work like Prime members have come to expect. Because every time I'm logged into Amazon now, the Prime Pantry logo is in my face, and it's starting to make me dislike a service that I once thought was as close to perfection as you could get.
