Amazon announced Wednesday it is expanding its same-day delivery service to include thousands of perishable food items, marking the retail giant’s latest move to compete with delivery options available through Walmart+ and Instacart.
Shoppers in more than 1,000 cities and towns across the U.S. can now include fresh groceries — like dairy, produce, seafood, frozen foods, baked goods and meat — in their same-day delivery orders, according to a news release from Amazon.
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This covers cities like Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Columbus, Ohio; and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Prime members — who pay $14.99 a month or $139 annually — can use the service for free on orders over $25 in most cities. Non-Prime shoppers can access the service for a fee of $12.99, no matter the order size, according to Amazon.
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The company plans to expand the service to more than 2,300 locations by the end of the year.
“By introducing fresh groceries into our Same-Day Delivery service, we’re creating a quick and easy experience for customers,” Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, said in a statement. “They can order milk alongside electronics; oranges, apples, and potatoes with a mystery novel; and frozen pizza at the same time as tools for their next home improvement project — and check out with one cart and have everything delivered to their doorstep within hours.”
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The service, which builds on Amazon’s existing grocery delivery network including Whole Foods Market and Amazon Fresh, marks the retail giant’s latest effort to rival delivery services provided by Walmart+ and Instacart, Reuters reported.
In June, Walmart announced it was expanding its drone delivery service to three more states. Later that month, Amazon announced it was investing more than $4 billion to triple the size of its delivery network by 2026, with a focus on expanding delivery services across rural America.
In 2024, Amazon brought in more than $100 billion in gross sales from household essentials and groceries, excluding revenue from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, according to the announcement.
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