Amazon is making its Fresh grocery delivery service available to people without Prime memberships in select U.S. cities. In the past, Fresh grocery delivery was only available to people who had a Prime subscription.
With this expansion, people in a dozen cities, including Austin, Texas, Boston, Massachusetts, Charlotte, North Carolina, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, Denver, Colorado, Nashville, Tennessee, Phoenix, Arizona, Portland, Oregon, Richmond, Virginia, Sacramento, California, San Diego, California and San Francisco, California will be able to order groceries online from Amazon Fresh stores and warehouses.
Non-Prime members who place an order under $50 will have to pay a $13.95 fee, while people who place an order between $50 and $100 will have to pay a $10.95 fee. Orders over $100 will have a $7.95 fee.
“We’re always looking for more ways to make grocery shopping easy, fast, and affordable for all of our customers, and are excited to offer Amazon Fresh grocery delivery to customers without a Prime membership in a dozen U.S. cities,” said Claire Peters, the worldwide vice president of Amazon Fresh, in an emailed statement. “Now even more Amazon customers can benefit from our high-quality grocery experience, with Prime members continuing to save on grocery delivery fees and through exclusive savings on hundreds of items in-store.”
For Prime and non-Prime members alike, Amazon will continue to offer two-hour delivery windows for all orders. Customers in some areas will be able to select a longer, six-hour delivery window for a reduced fee.
Amazon plans to launch the offering nationwide by the end of the year and eventually include products from Whole foods and other grocery stores, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The report indicates that Amazon plans to unify its e-commerce supermarket offerings, including Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and Amazon.com into one online cart. By doing so, customers would be able to order items from Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and Amazon.com in one single order, instead of having to make three separate orders.
The online retail giant also announced today that it’s introducing revamped Fresh stores in Chicago that have an expanded selection of products, along with in-store Krispy Kreme stores.
Earlier this year, Amazon started charging delivery fees for Fresh grocery orders that are under $150, removing a perk that gave Prime members free delivery on orders over $35. With this new policy, Amazon began charging a $3.95 delivery fee for orders between $100-$150, a $6.95 fee for orders between $50-$100 and $9.95 for orders less than $50.
Amazon operates dozens of Fresh grocery stores and Go convenience stores across the United States, and expanded its push into the grocery space by acquiring Whole Foods in 2017.