Whole Foods Chases Customers with $9.95 Delivery Fee

Delivery orders at Whole Foods’ New York City flagship have dropped off precipitously since the grocer introduced an eye-popping, flat-rate charge of $9.95 per delivery, The New York Post reports.

The outlet spoke with store employees, one of whom said the number of deliveries per hour at the store had plummeted from 40 to 185 per hour since the fee was instituted on Oct. 25.

Whole Foods spokesman Brian McGuigan said those numbers were “grossly inaccurate,” though he didn’t give specific information on the number of deliveries per hour or say whether deliveries were affected by the new fee.

Retail consultant Burt Flickinger of Strategic Research Group said the NYC flagship isn’t the only one of the Amazon-owned company’s locations to experience such a decline.

“Whole Foods deliveries are down significantly,” he told The Post, because the grocer already had the highest prices in the industry and now has the highest delivery charge. Flickinger speculated that the fee may have permanently alienated some customers, but added the company had limited options because it was losing money on the delivery service.

Read more at The New York Post.