LOS ANGELES, May 8 Reuters Amazon.com is offering customers 10 to pick up a purchase rather than have it shipped to a home address, as the ecommerce giant joins other retailers in racing to slash costs for home delivery and returns amid slack consumer demand.

Amazon over the last few days has emailed an unknown number of Prime subscribers offering them 10 to retrieve an order of 25 or more at company pickup points at locations such as Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh or Kohl39;s stores.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Upstate New Yorkbased shipping consultant Dean Maciuba was among the customers who received the offer.

Increasing use of Amazon pickup points would help the company bypass costly residential package dropoffs and is a huge opportunity for Amazon to reduce the cost of delivery, Maciuba said.

It also helps train consumers to tender returns directly to the company, he said.

Amazon separately has started charging some customers a 1 fee if they return packages via a United Parcel Service store when there is an Amazon pickupreturn location closer to their delivery address, a change first reported by The Information news site.

Shipping companies UPS and FedEx have encouraged customers to use socalled access points, particularly in rural areas where delivering to farflung addresses can be costprohibitive.

Amazon worked for years to train consumers to expect fast, nofee deliveries and returns. As the company tightens its belt after a…