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# Has Amazon lost its mind? Customers say grocery delivery is a mess
- URL: https://www.consumernews.ai/has-amazon-lost-its-mind-customers-say-grocery-delivery-is-a-mess/
- Published: 2026-09-08T13:12:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-08T13:15:19.000Z
- Description: Amazon grocery customers say the system seems to be having a nervous breakdown.
- Author: James R. Hood
- Tags: Consumer Protection

- **Amazon is trying to blend groceries and ordinary Amazon merchandise into a single shopping experience.**
- **But Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and Amazon's newer same-day grocery system still operate differently, depending on where a shopper lives.**
- **Customers are reporting canceled orders, split deliveries, missing bags and confusion about which Amazon grocery service they are actually using.**

Amazon has spent years trying to solve a seemingly simple problem: Why should consumers have to place one order for groceries and another for toothpaste, batteries or paper towels?

Its latest answer is to mix the two but some customers say the system has become jumbled up in the process. 

Amazon has [expanded same-day delivery](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-same-day-fresh-grocery-delivery-united-states?ref=consumernews.ai) of fresh food to more than 2,300 U.S. cities and towns, allowing customers in participating areas to put milk, meat, vegetables and frozen food in the [same cart](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/whole-foods-household-essentials-amazon?%5Fsp=0d50e7ea-ba7e-4198-a8b5-59434884695f&ref=consumernews.ai) as electronics, household supplies and other ordinary Amazon merchandise.

The company says shoppers have embraced the idea. Perishable groceries now account for nine of the 10 most frequently ordered products in markets where the service is available.

But judging from [customer complaints](https://www.reddit.com/r/amazonprime/comments/1vmywfi/amazon%5Fsuddenly%5Fkeeps%5Fcancelling%5Fwhole%5Ffoods/?ref=consumernews.ai), making Amazon's many grocery operations look like one store may be easier than making them behave like one.

Consumers have [recently complained](https://www.grocerydive.com/news/amazon-fresh-grocery-stores-future-performance/809897/?ref=consumernews.ai) online about grocery orders being divided unexpectedly into multiple deliveries, orders being canceled after they were placed, missing grocery bags, inexplicable changes in delivery windows and difficulty figuring out whether they are shopping through Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh or Amazon's general same-day delivery network.

ConsumerNews.ai was alerted to the problem recently. We had placed our usual weekly Whole Foods order and it was mysteriously turned into at least three smaller orders. When we saw the apparent error, we tried to cancel the order and were told it was too late. As usual, one has no recourse in this situation, since there's no apparent way to communicate directly with anyone at Amazon or Whole Foods.

What we got was one partial Whole Foods order that was delivered normally – to our apartment door. Another was left in the apartment complex's package room, a nightmare in itself. The third was mysteriously left on the floor next to the building's mailboxes. Refrigerated contents were mixed with dry goods and some items were duplicated. 

Of course, our experience and the complaints elsewhere don't establish that Amazon has a nationwide problem. Grocery delivery failures can occur for numerous reasons, including inventory errors, staffing shortages and individual drivers.

But they appear as Amazon is undertaking a particularly complicated restructuring of its grocery business.

[Amazon GroceriesHas Amazon lost its mind? Customers say grocery delivery is a messAmazon grocery customers say the system seems to be having a nervous breakdown.ConsumerNews.aiJames R. HoodOnline grocery delivery: How the major options compareAmazon’s not the only game in town. Here are some other grocery delivery options.ConsumerNews.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2a/11/2a11693a-adfd-404e-b346-dc871787142e/content/images/icon/cnai-logo-icon-600-sq-1efb9319-8efd-473e-a249-2ed6b74f53e1.png)ConsumerNews.aiJames R. Hood![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/2a/11/2a11693a-adfd-404e-b346-dc871787142e/content/images/thumbnail/cnai-logo-icon-600-sq-1-24e8a0fe-7b4f-4374-b0d6-188bfa8d57ab.png)](https://www.consumernews.ai/amazon-groceries/)

## One Amazon — but several grocery stores

What Amazon calls grocery shopping is actually several different services.

- Its regular Same-Day Delivery network increasingly stocks fresh food alongside millions of conventional Amazon products.
- Amazon Fresh continues as an online grocery operation even though Amazon announced earlier this year that it would close its remaining physical Amazon Fresh stores.
- Whole Foods Market, which Amazon has owned since 2017, generally retains its own online storefront and fulfillment system.
- And Amazon also offers groceries from independent supermarkets and specialty retailers through its website.

Those distinctions aren't always obvious to someone typing "milk" or "bananas" into Amazon.

An analysis by [Consumer Intelligence Research Partners](https://www.cirpllc.com/?ref=consumernews.ai) published after a recent Amazon grocery presentation noted that Amazon Fresh groceries have been incorporated into Amazon's main shopping experience and, importantly, its main cart. Whole Foods, however, remains largely separate.

Amazon is experimenting with eliminating even that distinction.

At a Whole Foods store in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, Amazon has installed a 10,000-square-foot automated fulfillment operation containing more than 12,000 additional Amazon products.

Online customers there can combine Whole Foods products with national-brand groceries and household items and complete the transaction with a single checkout.

Amazon says it intends to learn from the experiment and potentially expand the concept.

## Customers describe a confusing transition

Some customers say that elsewhere the push toward integration is producing some [decidedly un-integrated results](https://www.grocerydive.com/news/amazon-fresh-grocery-stores-future-performance/809897/?ref=consumernews.ai).

One Amazon Fresh customer writing on [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonFlexDrivers/comments/1uo7vxb/grocery%5Fdeliveries/?ref=consumernews.ai) in July said the Grocery section of the Amazon site had suddenly changed. An order that once would have arrived together was divided between deliveries: perishables arrived in grocery bags while other products came in an Amazon box.

Both deliveries were late, the customer said.

Another customer in August reported placing a grocery order that became delayed and then was labeled undeliverable. The customer reordered the groceries the following morning, only to have Amazon cancel the new order.

Customer service could apparently see no inventory shortage or lack of delivery windows that explained the cancellation.

A Whole Foods customer reported separately that Amazon canceled two successive grocery orders after previously offering multiple delivery windows.

Other customers have reported orders being canceled on the scheduled delivery day even though the products still appeared to be in stock.

The complaints are anecdotal and experiences vary substantially by city. Plenty of customers continue to report successful deliveries. But the confusion is understandable because an order that looks like one Amazon transaction may rely on very different supply chains.

A bunch of bananas stocked in an Amazon same-day fulfillment center may travel with an ordinary Amazon package.

The same bananas ordered from Whole Foods may instead be picked at a supermarket and handed to a grocery-delivery driver.

Products ordered together can therefore have different inventories, fulfillment locations and delivery systems even though the customer sees Amazon at the top of the screen.

## Amazon doesn't admit it has a problem

Amazon has not publicly acknowledged a rollout-wide bug affecting menu switching, duplicated grocery orders, duplicate billing, or mixed delivery windows. 

Its official response is [indirect](https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-same-day-fresh-grocery-delivery-united-states?ref=consumernews.ai): it highlights adoption, says the Freshness Guarantee applies to eligible Same-Day perishables, and promises Amazon will “make it right” when badged products do not arrive as expected. Amazon’s [published return policy](https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=GKM69DUUYKQWKWX7&ref=consumernews.ai) says grocery items, including Amazon Fresh items, are not returnable but may be refunded or replaced.

The fragmented responsibility between Amazon and Whole Foods is visible in [BBB complaint responses](https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/austin/profile/grocery-store/whole-foods-market-0825-60134/complaints?ref=consumernews.ai). In an April 7, 2025 response reproduced by BBB, Whole Foods told a customer that online grocery orders are managed through Amazon, directed the customer to request a refund in the app or contact Amazon, and said Whole Foods could support only in-store purchase issues. 

That routing may be operationally accurate, but it creates a consumer-service gap when the Amazon app presents a transaction as a Whole Foods purchase and store staff view it as an Amazon transaction.

## Amazon is betting heavily on groceries

The company isn't retreating from the business. Quite the opposite.

Amazon says more than 150 million Americans shop for groceries through its services and that it generated more than $150 billion in gross grocery sales in 2025.

It is closing Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go physical stores while expanding Whole Foods, including plans for more than 100 new Whole Foods stores over the next several years.

At the same time, it is pushing fresh food deeper into the ordinary Amazon delivery network. The strategy puts Amazon into increasingly direct competition with Walmart, Target, Kroger and Instacart, all of which have spent heavily building grocery pickup and delivery systems.

Amazon's central advantage could be enormous: consumers already use its app, already have payment information stored there and already order everything from detergent to computers.

Putting tonight's dinner in that same cart could make Amazon extremely difficult for conventional supermarkets to compete with.

But first the company has to make sure that putting everything in one cart doesn't result in everything arriving in three different deliveries — or not arriving at all.

## What consumers can do

Until Amazon's various grocery systems become easier to distinguish, shoppers should pay particularly close attention at checkout.

Check which retailer or Amazon service is actually fulfilling each item, whether the order has been divided into separate deliveries and whether each portion has its own delivery time.

After delivery, count bags and compare the delivered items with the final receipt immediately.

And consumers ordering perishables may want to avoid scheduling delivery for a time when nobody will be available to retrieve the groceries promptly.

Amazon's goal is compelling: one shopping cart for nearly everything a household needs.

For consumers, however, the test isn't whether Amazon can put everything into one cart.

It's whether everything comes out at the other end.

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