Washington, D.C.’s attorney general sued Amazon on Wednesday, accusing the company of covertly depriving residents in certain ZIP codes in the nation’s capitol from access to Prime’s high-speed delivery, CNBC reported.

The lawsuit from AG Brian Schwalb alleges that, since 2022, Amazon has “secretly excluded” two “historically underserved” D.C. ZIP codes from its expedited delivery service while charging Prime members living there the full subscription price. Amazon’s Prime membership program costs $139 a year and includes perks like two-day shipping and access to streaming content.

“Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working Ward 7 and 8 residents for an expedited delivery service it promises but does not provide,” Schwalb said in a statement. “While Amazon has every right to make operational changes, it cannot covertly decide that a dollar in one zip code is worth less than a dollar in another.”

Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb today sued Amazon.com. Inc. (Amazon) for deceiving District resident into paying for Prime delivery benefits they are not receiving, in violation of District consumer protection law. The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) alleges that since 2022, Amazon has secretly excluded two ZIP codes east of the Anacostia River from its advertised fastest delivery service while continuing to charge approximately 48,000 Prime members living there the full Prime subscription price.

“Amazon is charging tens of thousands of hard-working Ward 7 and 8 residents for an expedited delivery service it promises but does not provide.  While Amazon has every right to make operational changes, it cannot covertly decide that a dollar in one ZIP code is worth less than a dollar in another,” said Attorney General Schwalb. “We are suing to stop this deceptive conduct and make sure District residents get what they’re paying for.”

Gizmodo reported Amazon tricked customers in two predominantly Black zip codes in Washington, D.C. into paying for its faster Prime delivery service while actually outsourcing deliveries to slower providers, according to a new lawsuit filed by the district’s attorney general.

The suit accuses Amazon of making a secret internal decision in June 2022 to stop delivering to the zip codes 20019 and 20020, both east of the Anacostia River, using its Amazon branded trucks. Instead, the company began using slower services like UPS and the U.S. Postal Service to bring back packages to those neighborhoods, which are 89 and 90 percent Black, respectively, according to census data.

Meanwhile, the company continued to advertise and promote its faster delivery times to the roughly 48,000 Prime members in those zip codes, according to the complaint.

In my opinion, it sounds like Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb is going to target Amazon because the company was forcing people to pay for Prime delivery benefits that they did not receive.

Amazon is shuttering its drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California, one of the earliest U.S. test sites for the decade-long project, CNBC reported.

The program, called Prime Air, has struggled to get off the ground since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos first detailed his vision in 2013 of autonomous drones delivering packages weighing less than 5 pounds in 30 minutes or less.

Amazon says it’s now conducting test flights to demonstrate the reliability of its new delivery drone, the MK30, which the company unveiled at an event last year. The drone is intended to be smaller and quieter than prior models, and can fly through light and rain.

Amazon posted “Amazon drone delivery is coming to Arizona” From the post:

Later this year, Amazon customers in the West Valley Phoenix Metro Area can receive Prime Air drone deliveries from our Tolleson, AZ Same-Day Delivery site.

Since starting drone delivery in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California in 2022, we’ve delivered thousands of items to customers in less than an hour. Last year we also began delivering prescription medications in partnership with Amazon Pharmacy to customers in College Station. We’ve received great feedback from customers and communities as we’ve rolled out the service.

We’re now adding a new location and entering the next stage of the program’s evolution. Later this year, drone deliveries are coming to the West Valley of the Phoenix Metro Area in Arizona.

With this new location, we’ll be fully integrated into Amazon’s delivery network, meaning, for the first time, drones will deploy from facilities next to our Same-Day Delivery site in Tolleson. These smaller sites are hybrid — part fulfillment center, pat delivery station. They allow us to fulfill, sort, and deliver products all from one site so we can get packages out to our customers even quicker.

Our Same-Day Delivery sites are situated close to the large metro areas they serve, which means customers get their orders faster. And with connections to the larger Amazon fulfillment centers nearby, we are able to offer Same-Day Delivery on millions of items…

TechCrunch reported Amazon it is ending Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California. The Central California town of 3,500 was the company’s second U.S. drone delivery site, after College Station, Texas. Operations were announced in June 2022.

The retail giant is not offering details around the setback, only noting, “We’ll offer all current employees opportunities at other sites, and continue serve customers in Lockeford with other delivery methods. We want to thank the community for all their support and feedback over the past few years.”

College Station deliveries will continue, along with a forthcoming site in Tolleson, Arizona, set to kick off deliveries later this year. Tolleson, a city of just over 7,000, is located in Maricopa County, in the western portion of the Phoenix metropolitan area.

In my opinion, it appears that Amazon intends to move its newest drone to different parts of the United States. It is also really good that current workers will be offered work at some of Amazon’s other sites.

Amazon has decided to give up on its Just Walk Out program that lets customers leave its brick-and-mortar grocery stores without a formal checkout process, The Verge reported.

Instead, it’s switching fully to “Dash Carts,” where customers can scan products as they toss them in their cart.

That’s according to The Information, which reports that the company is pulling Just Walk Out from all larger stores where the system is in place and “sprucing up the stores across the board” as it prepares to expand Amazon Fresh locations this year. Amazon will keep using its smaller corner stores, though.

Amazon hasn’t managed to get a handle on in-person retail despite buying the upscale, popular Whole Foods chain back in 2017. Over the years, the online shopping giant has closed all of its Books, 4-Star, and Pop-up stores and halted the expansion of its Fresh stores.

According to The Verge, with the company falling back to further its Dash Carts, it’s essentially shrinking self-checkout into a contraption with scanners and a touchscreen, bolted onto special shopping carts — something that other retailers have tried in the US and in Europe — followed by checking out with a palm scanner. That has benefits like customers being able to keep a running total while they shop, but Amazon would still face hurdles.

Gizmodo reported Amazon is phasing out its checkout-less grocery stores with “Just Walk Out” technology. The company’s senior vice president of grocery stores says they’re moving away from Just Walk Out, which relied on cameras and sensors to track what people were leaving the store with.

Just over half of Amazon Fresh stores are equipped with Just Walk Out. The technology allows customers to skip checkout altogether by scanning a QR code when they enter the store. Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.

Instead, Amazon is moving towards Dash Carts, a scanner and a screen that’s embedded in your shopping cart, allowing you to checkout as you shop. These offer a more reliable solution than Just Walk Out. Amazon Fresh stores will also feature self check out counters from now on, for people who aren’t Amazon members.

Engadget also reported Amazon is removing Just Walk Out tech from all of its Fresh grocery stores in the U.S. The self-checkout system relies on a host of cameras, sensors and good old-fashioned human eyeballs to track what people leave the store with, charging the customers accordingly.

The technology has been plagued by issues from the onset. Most notably, Just Walk Out presents the illusion of automation, with Amazon crowing about generative AI and the like. Here’s where the smoke and mirrors come in. While the stores have no actual cashiers, there are reportedly over 1,000 real people in India scanning the camera feeds to ensure accurate checkouts.

According to Engadget, its also incredibly expensive to install and maintain the necessary equipment, which is likely why Just Walk Out technology was only adopted at around half of Fresh stores in the U.S.

In my opinion, it would be easier to just get your groceries from your local grocery store, or request a door-dash driver to bring the groceries you requested to your door.