For years, free two-hour grocery delivery has been one of Amazon's best perks for Prime members in select markets, but there has always been a catch: orders with a total of less than $35 would incur a $5 delivery charge. This threshold hasn’t been a problem for most users — usually, adding an item or two to your cart if you fell short would allow you to circumvent the fee. If you're an Amazon Fresh fanatic though, the days of feeless deliveries might be over, as the company is preparing to roll out some expensive new rates,

Beginning February 28, Amazon will charge scaling delivery fees on Fresh orders totaling less than $150. This is in addition to the $15 per month or $140 per year customers already pay for a Prime membership, which is required to access the grocery delivery service in the first place. For orders between $100 and $150, you’ll be charged a $4 fee. Totals ranging from $50 to $100 will cost an additional $7, while anything lower than that will incur a whopping $10 delivery surcharge. Ouch.

In an email sent out to Prime customers on Friday, Amazon offered an explanation to customers, claiming — without a hint of irony — that these new rates will “help keep prices low” in its online and physical stores.

We’re introducing a service fee on some Amazon Fresh delivery orders to help keep prices low in our online and physical grocery stores as we better cover grocery delivery costs and continue to enable offering a consistent, fast, and high-quality delivery experience.

To be fair, Amazon Fresh originally cost $15 per month in addition to any Amazon Prime membership fees you were paying — it was only in October 2019 that the two services became bundled together. Still, it's pretty ridiculous to see the biggest company on Earth claiming its new fees are the only strategy for keeping prices low, especially when that method involves raising costs for the vast majority of shoppers. Grocery delivery is still only offered in select markets, though availability has slowly increased from sporadic to widespread following Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods.

It's just the latest cost-cutting measure Amazon has utilized. Nearly a year ago, the company raised the Prime annual subscription price to $140, at the time citing increased investments in streaming exclusives like Thursday night NFL games. More recently, Amazon laid off more than 18,000 people, including most of its Comixology team, and discontinued its Smile charity program under similarly weak excuses. You can't say the company isn't consistent.

If this has you questioning the value of your Amazon Prime membership, you can find some relief in all the other exclusive perks, including Prime Video, Prime Gaming with Amazon Luna, and those sweet semi-annual Prime Day deals. Of course, who knows how long those remain unchanged.

Thanks: Moshe