Here’s What You Need to Know About Amazon’s New Free Grocery Delivery

updated Oct 30, 2019

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The fight for grocery delivery dollars has been ramping up in the last few years, and NBC News reports that Amazon just laid its cards down with a big move: free delivery to all Amazon Prime members.

Since Amazon’s takeover of Whole Foods in 2017, it has been a looming giant in the grocery delivery landscape, and as of Tuesday, Amazon finally announced it was happening: all subscribers to their Prime service get free two-hour delivery from AmazonFresh and Whole Foods.

Prime members already pay a $119 annual fee, so the service isn’t entirely free and open to everyone. Previously, an additional $14.99 per month subscription was required for the grocery service. However, while the service will be free, it will begin rolling out to shoppers who already used the grocery delivery service, then start fulfilling requests for invitations into the service before rolling out to the entire public. And the free service does have a minimum delivery fee of $50 in New York and $35 in most other areas.

According to the Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen, the grocery delivery market will be worth about $100 billion dollars of spending by 2022, so it’s no surprise that Amazon and competitors like Instacart, Walmart, and Kroger are fiercely trying to establish loyal customers and attractive policies. Even though it currently represents a tiny fraction of the grocery market — estimated at two percent — it has seen enormous growth in the last few years and seems poised only to do even more as the digital-native generation settles into homes and families of their own.

Amazon’s wide-reaching delivery network, purchase of Whole Foods, and plans for their own additional brand of grocery stores make it poised to take a big bite from whatever business there is for online grocery shopping, Making it free for the already established Prime members seems like a big step in cementing that.