Amazon Restaurants Food Delivery Service Shutting Down in US

Amazon.com said on Tuesday it would end its US restaurant food delivery service on June 24, giving in to intense competition from GrubHub, DoorDash, Uber Technologies' Uber Eats services. Amazon Restaurants was launched in 2015 in Seattle and was designed to give Prime members a way to order meals, apart from products and groceries, through the online retailer. The service was expanded to more than 20 US cities, and then to London where the program ended in November.

"A small fraction of Amazon employees are affected by this decision, and many of those affected have already found new roles at Amazon," the company said in a statement. "Employees will be offered personalised support to find a new role within, or outside of, the company."

The Amazon Restaurants unit was led at one point by the executive also in charge of Amazon's ticketing business, but was overseen later by an executive running its two-hour grocery delivery service, Prime Now, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

However, Amazon still has ambitions in food delivery. In May, the company took a stake in British online food delivery company Deliveroo, leading a $575 million (roughly Rs. 3,993 crores) fundraising.

Shares of Amazon edged up 0.4 percent, while GrubHub rose 8.6 percent.

Geekwire first reported the news.

Earlier, Amazon has introduced StyleSnap, a feature on its app that allows users to upload a picture of a look or style they like and get recommendations for similar items on the platform. When providing recommendations, StyleSnap considers a variety of factors such as brand, price range, and customer reviews, the company said in a blog post.

© Thomson Reuters 2019