Amazon Meal, a food delivery service that was offered by Amazon India, will stop its operations by the end of the year. When it first began offering its delivery service, over two years ago, it was only available in Bengaluru and a few other select locations across the country.
Zomato and Swiggy were their main competitors at the time. Amazon provided confirmation of the report to the news agency Reuters and stated that the decisions were made as part of the company’s ongoing process of conducting an annual assessment of its operational plans. Earlier this month, the corporation was forced to lay off hundreds of employees and discontinue operations of its education technology service in India.
The corporation has decided to concentrate its efforts on its primary line of business and will reduce its involvement in a number of other market segments. According to a quote from a source that was published in Business Today, “This step was taken in light of the economic recession, and the company will focus more on core businesses going forward.”
In a separate development, Amazon confirmed to The Economic Times that Amazon Food would be discontinued beginning on December 29. The following was included in a statement: “These are not arbitrary choices; we give them careful consideration. We are gradually terminating these programmes in order to minimise the disruption to our existing clients and business partners, and we are providing assistance to our workers who will be directly impacted by these changes. Amazon’s primary goal continues to be to give its ever-expanding customer base the greatest possible experience while shopping online by offering the widest possible assortment of high-quality goods at competitive prices and in a manner that is as convenient as possible”
At the time of the debut of Amazon Food in May 2022, the firm stated that customers desired the app to add food delivery and to go beyond essentials in scope. At the moment, the primary Amazon app features a specific section that is devoted to food and medication.
Amazon Food and Amazon Academy first launched in India at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to assist customers in gaining access to crucial services without leaving the comfort of their homes. However, the Indian market was already dominated in the food delivery area by established competitors such as Swiggy and Zomato as well as start-up companies such as Big Basket and Dunzo. When it came to the educational technology sector, Byju’s held a significant portion of the Indian market.
For instance, the market for Indian cuisine is still extremely competitive, and despite their best efforts, industry heavyweights like Uber have been unable to create an impression with their food delivery service, Uber Eats. Several systems were sold and rebranded, such as the Gururgram-based Grofers, which Zomato acquired in June 2022 and renamed Blinkit after the transaction.
As was previously noted, the corporation terminated the employment of more than 10,000 workers at the beginning of this month as a direct result of the uncertain state of the macroeconomic environment. A number of Indian employees have also been affected by the layoffs, and some of them are turning to LinkedIn in order to find new employment and preserve their H-1B visas.
The Labor Ministry held an inquiry into the company’s Voluntary Separation Program, also known as a programme under which Indian workers were encouraged to leave the company in exchange for certain monetary benefits, last week. The company was called in for the inquiry after receiving a summons from the Ministry of Labour.
Smitha Sharma, who is Amazon’s senior public policy manager, and NITES, which is an employee association, were both called in for a hearing by A Anjanappa, who is the deputy chief commissioner at the Labour Ministry.
During the hearing, the company argued that all of the employees who left voluntarily did so on their own and that they were not subjected to any undue pressure to leave their positions. Representatives of the workforce were unable to attend the meeting and consequently submitted a request to postpone it. According to the information obtained by Business Today, the meeting will be rescheduled to take place in about two to three weeks.