Whole Foods is based on freshness, but the online store of Amazon? Not so much. Media claims that 3rd-party sellers at Amazon are all-too-regularly shipping food that has expired very long ago, comprising items such as Teavana goods discontinued in 2017 and year-old Hostess brownies. Almost 40% of merchants had more than 5 complaints about expired products, as per reports. And in cases where various merchants are selling the same item, it is not always obvious who you are purchasing from or whether or not it is fresh.
Amazon has removed a few listings. A representative also claimed to the media that merchants have to admire both Amazon policies and the law, comprising an assurance that any product has a shelf life of minimum 90 Days. The firm claimed that it employs a mix of AI and human reviews to study input, assisting it tag items or whole seller accounts if it detects breaches.
Expired products still appear to slip via the gaps, though, and the approach by Amazon to 3rd parties might be partially to blame. Apart from the confusion over who is selling, Amazon will slash off reviews if they are for orders it fulfilled employing its warehouses—while this is intended to “take blame” for the experience, it can also shadow recurring issues. There are calls for greater accountability and better freshness guarantees when things go south, and it is not clear those will be dealt with in the coming period.
On a relegated note, Discovery needs to be your one-stop store for cooking classes, and it is enrolling Amazon’s assistance to make that take place. The broadcaster earlier revealed a Food Network Kitchen platform that provides a combination of on-demand classes, live classes from celebrity chefs, recipes, and TV shows.