What To Know About Amazon Fresh's Return Policy

If you order something from Amazon and don't want it, the return process is pretty clear: Just get a return label and send that thing right back. But for Amazon Fresh, the online giant's brick-and-mortar supermarket, which has around 60 American stores (mostly in California, Chicago, and the northeast), the process is a bit different.

The return process depends on how you made your purchase. If your Amazon account is linked up to your purchase, you just have to go to the "Your Orders" section of the website or app when you're logged in. Then, you choose the order and the items from it you wish to return. You'll have to choose between shipping the return or dropping it in store. It can take up to five working days for the refund to appear on your debit or credit card.

However, if you paid for your order with cash or SNAP EBT (so-called food stamps) benefits, you'll have to go in person with your receipt to the store where you made the purchase. Amazon's instructions don't mention what to do if you made an in-store purchase that wasn't linked to your account, but it would make sense that you'd have to go in person with a receipt.

Amazon Fresh stores don't just handle returns for purchases you made there. You can see them as a physical extension of Amazon's enormous online store, at least in some ways. Other Amazon packages can be returned to Amazon Fresh stores — start the normal return process, and then when asked "How will you mail your return?", you can select an Amazon Fresh location. You'll receive a QR code by email that you'll show when you go to the store. You can also pick up regular Amazon packages there — select that option when you're filling out the delivery section during the checkout process.

The same applies to other brick-and-mortar shops that Amazon owns — specifically, Amazon Go and Whole Foods (which Amazon purchased in 2017). You can make returns at these stores too, and you can pick up packages at most Whole Foods stores. For returns of Whole Foods purchases, there are a few different rules, so look into those policies separately.

Finally, there are a few items that can't be returned if you buy them from Amazon Fresh. Magazines, newspapers, and gift cards all can't be returned, nor can anything that is Hallmark branded. Amazon's policy also notes that groceries and alcohol aren't "returnable" but can be replaced or refunded — this seems to suggest that you just won't have to return these physical items if there's a problem, although the policy isn't explicit on the details.