Amazon Says Goodbye to ‘AmazonTote’ Program

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R.I.P. AmazonTote: Although no one outside the Seattle area really knew you, I’m sure that your services will be missed by those who used them.

Amazon’s alternate delivery program was a service run by the company that used its own workers and fleet of trucks to drop off ordered items packaged in reusable bags on a set day in Seattle-area neighborhoods. On top of being free, it could be faster than traditional mailing methods depending on how close your order was to the date Amazon was going to be in your area. The company saved money on having to pay third party shipping companies and on packaging costs. The project was being tested in the Seattle area, but today customers were greeted with this note: [via Tech Flash]

Hello from AmazonTote,

We are writing to let you know that we are concluding the AmazonTote Seattle pilot. We will no longer take orders after 6pm Thursday, March 3, 2011. The AmazonTote pilot was launched in Seattle as a new customer delivery experience. We have loved having you as our customer and applaud you as an early adopter. We are working hard to incorporate your feedback on things you liked and things you want to see improved. In case you would like to provide more feedback, you can email us at: amazontote-feedback@amazon.com

You may be interested to know that AmazonFresh carries over 40,000 popular Amazon.com products available for same-day or next-day delivery. Visit www.amazonfresh.com and click the “Amazon.com Now” tab to browse the full selection of kitchen, electronics, media, toys, and more. To help you get started, AmazonFresh is offering you a month of free Big Radish status. With Big Radish status, you get the free delivery you enjoyed with AmazonTote, as well as the added flexibility of choosing your own delivery time. To activate your Big Radish status, enter the code word “TOTE” when you checkout atwww.amazonfresh.com. For more details on this offer, please visit http://fresh.amazon.com/Category?cat=promotion9997987162.

That’s not all! With Amazon Prime you can get FREE Two-Day Shipping with no minimum order size on millions of items onAmazon.com. If you haven’t had Amazon Prime in the past, you can try it free for one month by visitinghttp://www.amazon.com/gp/prime.

On behalf of the AmazonTote team, thank you for being part of the Seattle pilot program. If you would like to know more details, please read the FAQs we have compiled below.

— The AmazonTote Team

There were plans to expand the program nationwide, which makes me scratch my head about why Amazon decided to cancel the program. I’m guessing it didn’t do as well as the company was hoping, although the idea of how AmazonTote brought Amazon’s products to customers seemed quite appealing.

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