Indian consumers ask Amazon to resume Pantry service

The Indian users of online grocery delivery service Amazon Pantry have taken to Twitter to urge the e-retail major to resume services ever since it was discontinued on February 1. “Currently, pantry items are not available on Amazon. Kindly stay tuned for more updates. Thank you for understanding,” Amazon responded to its Indian users in a tweet. The service became unavailable in India on February 1, the day revised norms for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in e-commerce came into force in the country.

Following the new norms, Amazon has also removed from its website sellers such as Cloudtail India and Appario Retail Pvt Ltd in which it owns a stake.

“I am missing Amazon Pantry service which catered to my monthly needs. It was super convenient,” tweeted a user.

“What happened to Amazon Pantry? Please fix it,” read another user’s tweet.

Under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry’s new guidelines issued on December 26, e-commerce platforms providing a marketplace are barred from exercising control or ownership over the inventory.

They are also barred from allowing any company to sell its products exclusively on their e-commerce platforms alone.

The Indian arm of the Seattle-based e-commerce giant did not respond to questions by IANS on the expected impact to its business in the light of the revised norms.

While the company had earlier in a statement to IANS said that “it has always operated in compliance with the laws of the land”, it did not respond to queries on the changes it may have to make to its business model to suit the new norms.