Amazon shuts down food delivery business in India
New Delhi, November 27 (KMS): Amazon will shut down its food delivery business in India by the end of the year, the retailer said, retreating from a $20 billion vertical it entered less than three years ago.
The retailer will shut down the food delivery business, called Amazon Food, on December 29 in India. It launched Food in India in May 2020 in parts of Bengaluru. The company later expanded the service across the city, tying up with additional restaurants, but it never heavily promoted or marketed the platform.
The actual reason for Amazon quitting food service in India can be traced from the screenshots posted by a social activist, Naman Chakraborty on his Twitter account. The screenshots go as: “Man cancels order over non-Hindu driver. Zomato responds saying ‘Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion.’ What are your thoughts on this incident? This was a nothing burger from the start. A man – let us call him – Bigoteshwar Mahachu, ordered food on Zomato – when his order was picked up by a delivery person, Our dear old Bigoteshwar noticed something so abhorrent – his nipples froze, shriveled and dropped off in shock. The delivery person en-route with his food was a Muslim!”
The announcement is part of Amazon’s broader restructuring in India. It announced earlier this week that it will be shutting down its edtech service Academy in the country next year.