Amazon last year promised that customers of its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service would eventually be required to shell out $299 per year for a Prime Fresh membership. That time has finally come and unsurprisingly, people aren't too thrilled about it.
Amazon first started testing its grocery delivery service some eight years ago in its home town of Seattle. Since that time, the service has expanded to several additional cities as Amazon seemingly toyed with multiple pricing models before selling on the new Prime Fresh membership.
As GeekWire notes, customers in Seattle, New York City and Philadelphia that logged into their account over the weekend would have noticed the change. A link to a page explaining the change says Prime Fresh membership includes free Amazon Fresh delivery on grocery orders over $50 in addition to all of the other benefits of a standard Prime membership.
In other words, if you're already a Prime member at the $99 rate, you'll need to dole over an additional $200 to upgrade to a Prime Fresh subscription. Amazon notes that existing customers who upgrade to Prime Fresh will be refunded for their Prime membership on a prorated basis.
Several Amazon Fresh customers took to Twitter to voice their displeasure over the fee with some vowing to take their business elsewhere. Such outcry is understandable considering many have been using the service without a fee for many years now.