Amazon to shut down food-delivery business in India

NEW DELHI: Amazon Inc will shut down a food-delivery business it was testing in India, the e-commerce giant said on Friday, a day after it announced the winding down of its online learning platform for high-school students in the country.

Amazon Food, a business the company was trialing in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, would be discontinued, it said.

“As part of our annual operating planning review process, we have made the decision to discontinue Amazon Food,” a company spokesperson told Reuters.

“We don’t take these decisions lightly. We are discontinuing these programs in a phased manner to take care of current customers and partners.”

The Economic Times earlier reported that the business would be discontinued from Dec. 29 onwards, citing a communication from the company to its restaurant partners. On Thursday, Amazon said it was shutting down the Amazon Academy platform in India that was launched early last year amid a boom in virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An uncertain macroeconomic environment is making the e-commerce giant review its global workforce, as the company plans to lay off around 10,000 employees in corporate and technology roles, Reuters reported last week.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has recently warned employees that there will be more layoffs at the company in early 2023 “as leaders continue to make adjustments”.

The e-commerce giant publicly confirmed some layoffs on Wednesday and now, Jassy has said more layoffs are coming as Amazon’s annual planning process extends into the new year. “Those decisions will be shared with impacted employees and organisations early in 2023,” he said in a statement late on Thursday.

“We haven’t concluded yet exactly how many other roles will be impacted (we know that there will be reductions in our Stores and PXT organisations), but each leader will communicate to their respective teams when we have the details nailed down,” Sassy added.