Amazon Stops Delivering Fresh Groceries In Several States

Amazon recently made a huge leap into the grocery business with its acquisition of Whole Foods, so it's surprising that this week the company announced it would actually be scaling back operations of its AmazonFresh grocery delivery service in at least nine states.

According to ReCode, customers in nine states received emails from Amazon telling them that AmazonFresh would no longer be available in their areas. Any final AmazonFresh orders in those places would have to be made by November 30. Amazon also recently shut down its wine delivery operations after having issues with liquor licenses and shipping alcohol across state lines. Amazon is reportedly still delivering wine and groceries in Tokyo, though, and recently opened a fancy pop-up bar there with live sommeliers and personalized online beverage recommendations.

So far, customers say they received the AmazonFresh cancellation notifications for certain zip codes in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, California, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Virginia.

AmazonFresh is also available in New York City, D.C., Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Miami, Dallas, and Denver. An Amazon representative says people in big cities like New York, L.A., Chicago, and Philadelphia will be able to continue to use AmazonFresh to their hearts' content. She said this decision was "unrelated to the Whole Foods acquisition," but she did not go into more detail than that. A lot of people might not be able to use Amazon to order fresh groceries soon, but they'll still be able to use the site to buy a ton of the most ridiculous kitchen gadgets on Amazon.