Amazon reportedly pilots Prime grocery subscription
Amazon is reportedly testing a service that provides free delivery on grocery orders to Prime members for a monthly fee.
According to CNBC, Amazon is piloting an offering in Denver; Sacramento; and Columbus, Ohio that enables members of the Amazon Prime paid membership program to pay $9.99 per month for unlimited free deliveries from its Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh grocery banners on orders of more than $35.
The service also provides the option for 30-minute pickup on Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh orders of any size.
“We’re always experimenting with features to make shopping easier, faster, and more affordable, and we look forward to hearing how members who take advantage of this offer respond,” Tony Hoggett, senior VP of worldwide grocery stores, Amazon, said in a statement to CNBC. Read more coverage here.
This pilot follows Amazon’s announcement in November 2023 that it has made grocery delivery and free pickup available to customers without a Prime membership in all U.S. locations where Amazon Fresh is available. (The rollout follows a pilot in select cities this past summer.) The same services will soon be available from Whole Foods Market to non-Prime members.
The move to expand grocery delivery/pickup to non-Prime members makes Amazon more competitive with rival Walmart, which has been steadily gaining grocery market share, as well as delivery platform Instacart, Target-owned Shipt and DoorDash.
When fully launched across all Whole Foods Market locations, customers in more than 3,500 cities and towns across the U.S. will have access to two-hour grocery delivery from Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods Market.
Additionally, customers without a Prime membership can now order delivery from a variety of local grocery and specialty retailers available on Amazon.com, including Bristol Farms, Cardenas Markets, Pet Food Express, Weis Markets and Save Mart.
In February, Amazon raised the minimum for free grocery delivery to $150 for Prime members. But about eight months later, in October, Amazon, lowered the threshold for free delivery to $100.