Amazon officials have launched a new delivery service in Seattle that allows customers to order food from local restaurants.
The new online feature, which is only available for Prime Now members living in the Pacific Northwestern city, was announced on Tuesday. The service is provided free of additional charges for users enrolled in the program.
"We are going to learn a lot from starting in Seattle - an important part of the customer experience is having a range of selection from quality restaurants," Amazon Restaurants general manager Gus Lopez told Reuters.
Prime Now first launched in New York City as part of the company's $99 annual membership program. The service delivers a diverse assortment of goods and meals within a one to two-hour interval.
Amazon is expected to make the restaurant delivery service available to other cities in coming months.
The company's Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Bezos recently criticized the New York Times for what he claims is an inaccurate description of the company's workplace environment.
The article at hand, "Inside Amazon: Wresting Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace," claimed that workers at the company are held to standards that are "unreasonably high" and that they often receive e-mails and text messages past midnight. Bezos claims the piece made a portrait of Amazon that made it seem like a "soulless, dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard," the New York Times reports in its follow-up article.
He later told his employees: "I don't recognize this Amazon and I very much hope you don't, either."
Earlier this year, Amazon officials sued four websites connected with allegedly misleading customers with fake, positive reviews, Reuters also reports.
Company representatives filed an official complaint at the King County Superior Court in Washington, claiming the four websites were negatively affecting the online retailer's review process.
"While small in number, these reviews threaten to undermine the trust that customers, and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers, place in Amazon, thereby tarnishing Amazon's brand," the complaint said, according to the site.
Amazon was founded in 1994 in Seattle.
