New Delhi, Jan 9 (IANS): Ecommerce giant Amazon has announced to discontinue its Pantry (originally known as Prime Pantry) service, as it strengthens its grocery delivery both online and offline.

Amazon Pantry orders charged customers a flat $5.99 shipping fee per box of groceries.

The box could be filled with up to 45 pounds of products or up to four cubic feet of everyday stuff, like laundry detergent, toilet paper or snacks.

The company has now merged Pantry service with its main website, reports The Verge.

Amazon Pantry was launched in 2014. The aim was to make it easier to stock up on everyday products that would otherwise be bulky or expensive to ship.

In 2018, Prime Pantry changed its subscription service where extra $4.99 a month on Prime membership gave users unlimited free shipping on any orders over $40 from the Prime Pantry service.

Before that, Prime Pantry required a per-order flat fee of $5.99 even for Prime members.

Amazon now owns Whole Foods, an entire chain of grocery stores, and has started to roll out its own Amazon Fresh-branded stores.

The Amazon Fresh store will continue to offer online shopping services in addition to in-person shopping.

Amazon said it will offer free same-day delivery for Prime members, and there are also in-store pickup options for online orders.