(Photo: Amazon)

Amazon and Whole Foods Market working to meet grocery demand

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is creating a strain on grocery shopping through crisis shopping and social distancing regulations. Whole Foods Market and Amazon are working on a new program to make grocery shopping a little less frustrating for customers.

Amazon revealed its new virtual waiting lines feature that will allow customers to “secure time to shop” and gives customers a delivery window on a “first-come, first-served basis.” The new feature prevents customers from having to compete for time slots more often and this change should arrive in the next couple of weeks.

Amazon is still working to improve accessibility with all the incoming orders on the e-commerce platform with an increased capacity of 60 percent in the response to the pandemic, adding more “as swiftly as possible.” Amazon is also working on developing new protocols to streamline food deliveries including changing Whole Foods Market store hours to focus on internet orders.

Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market currently have a system in place that is requesting pickup and delivery customers to wait for invitations to shop online so customers who shop can see the available delivery windows on the services’ respective homepages. Amazon isn’t the only food delivery service making changes in response to COVID-19.

Instacart implemented the first-available-shopper delivery option for customers who don’t want to wait a long time for preferred delivery windows.