Amazon Will Deliver Your Groceries for Free… Should You Use It?

Published on October 30, 2019

The leaves are changing, the weather is getting cold, and Amazon is right there with a new service to get you through the winter. Now if you have an Amazon Prime membership, you’ll also be able to get Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market grocery deliveries free of charge. With Amazon slashing the extra $15 per month will save you $180 per year, heating up the competition among other grocery delivery services. This adds another feather in the Amazon’s hat as it bundles together a large range of different services, including Prime Video, Prime Music, and Twitch Prime.

Competition in the Market

Amazon’s announcement came less than two months after Walmart rolled out its free, unlimited grocery delivery service for a $98 annual fee. The latest attempt by the company to monopolize the online food shopping market. Groceries are an estimated $675 billion market and quickly moving to digital. Amazon has two grocery delivery services. Delivery from Whole Foods Markets was already free for Prime customers, Amazon Fresh cost an additional $15 a month. But that is all of a thing of the past.

Should You Use Amazon Fresh?

The New York Times recently reported Amazon’s innovations in efficiency haven’t been the best for major urban areas. In New York City, traffic congestion caused by deliveries is ramping up, as drivers deliver some 1.5 million packages a day. This is also on top of Amazon’s questionable business practices regarding its use of delivery drivers, often responsible for meeting harsh end-of-day targets. A 2018 Business Insider report surveyed 31 Amazon drivers who had issues of long, “grueling” shifts and missing wages. A separate report from Buzzfeed cites the next-day delivery as “chaos” for drivers. Most drivers are hired as independent contractors through third-party companies which limits their rights in the event of an accident.

If you’re new to grocery shopping on Amazon, you can request an invite and Amazon will notify you when you’re able to shop. Amazon offers two-hour delivery windows but you’ll still have separate carts for Amazon Fresh and Amazon Whole Foods Market and to qualify for free delivery, each order has to be at least $35 ($50 for New York customers). Amazon Fresh is currently available in over 2,000 cities across the US.

Jennifer Matthews is an Editor-at-Large at Grit Daily. Based in New York and formerly a producer at CNN, she is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists, the Recording Academy, Women in Music, and an ASCAP Affiliate. A media pro and producer of content, she mentors and advocates for diversity and is a regular on the events coverage beat for Grit Daily.

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