Amazon announced Friday that it is shutting down its Prime Pantry food delivery service amid the pandemic as people hunker down and stock up on groceries and supplies.
The Seattle-based firm said it will use the time to restock for an unspecified period of time.
But, it warned, “At this time, due to high demand, our other stores may have limited availability and delivery.”
Prime Pantry offers non-perishable groceries like cereal and pasta sauce as well as household products to Prime members.
Amazon’s same-day and next-day grocery services have also suffered delays amid a surge in demand over the CCP virus epidemic.
The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.
The outbreak has triggered throngs of shoppers to order online, creating shortages of products including cleaning supplies, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper. And on Monday, Amazon said it would hire about 100,000 people across the United States to deal with the demand surge.
The chain said it will also reduce the bandwidth on Prime Video streaming services to lessen the strain on Internet broadband. YouTube and Netflix have made similar announcements in recent days.