Key Takeaways
- Amazon Fresh is a grocery shopping service that offers physical stores, curbside pick-up, and delivery options for thousands of food, drink, and household products.
- Delivery options for Amazon Fresh vary by location, with some areas offering two-hour delivery for Prime members and five-hour delivery for non-Prime members.
- Amazon Fresh is available in select US and UK cities, as well as other international cities. Prime members can receive free delivery on qualifying orders, while non-members may incur delivery fees.
Amazon’s take on grocery shopping is Amazon Fresh, a food-focused platform with both physical stores and deliveries. While Amazon Fresh has been around since 2007, the grocery platform has been through several major changes, including opening physical stores without checkout lines and, most recently, expanding the service beyond only Prime members in the US With Amazon Fresh now available for more than just Prime Members and in multiple countries, more shoppers now have access to the service. But what is Amazon Fresh, and where does it deliver? We answer all your questions below.
What is Amazon Fresh?
Amazon Fresh is the online retailer’s grocery shopping service that hosts thousands of food, drinks, and household products. Shoppers can get groceries from Amazon Fresh in three ways: through the physical stores, curbside pick-up, or delivery, some within a two-hour window – even when ordered on the same day. Amazon Fresh runs from physical stores by the same name and with cooperation from Bristol Farms, Cardenas Markets, Pet Food Express, Weiss Markets, and Save Mart. While Whole Foods is separate, some services are similar because Amazon owns the two companies.
While Amazon Fresh started with food deliveries, Amazon has since opened several physical stores by the same name. But Amazon Fresh locations are a modern take on the grocery store, as the original stores lacked cashiers or tills. Instead, customers scan a code as they enter the store. The Amazon Dash cart uses computer vision and sensors to scan items automatically. While the physical stores launched with the promise of no checkout lines, some locations now have traditional lanes and self-checkout.
As an Amazon company, Amazon Fresh is also heavily integrated into Alexa. At home, Alexa can also add items to an Amazon Fresh cart. Shopping lists created with Alexa are available in-store in the app or through the Dash cart. Alexa stations throughout the store are also equipped to answer questions about where to find a specific item.
Source: Amazon
When does Amazon Fresh deliver?
The time slots for delivery vary by location. In some locations, Prime members can get groceries as fast as two hours, while non-Prime members can get groceries delivered as fast as five hours.
Where can you get Amazon Fresh deliveries?
Amazon Fresh is available in select US and UK cities and a few other international cities, including Hong Kong and Tokyo. Delivery service is only available at select zip codes near an Amazon Fresh store or a subsidiary.
In the UK, Amazon Fresh deliveries are currently available across Greater London and several surrounding counties, including regions in Surrey, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. You can check the eligible UK postcodes here. However, Amazon eventually hopes to extend Amazon Fresh deliveries to the whole of the UK.
Amazon Fresh is available in “select cities” in the States. You can check whether your region is eligible by heading to the main Fresh page and selecting your delivery zip code in the top-left.
Is Amazon Fresh free for Prime members?
Where available, Amazon Fresh deliveries are free for Prime members if certain conditions are met. In the US, the order must be over $100. One-hour deliveries incur higher fees than two-hour deliveries.
In the UK, Prime members can receive a two-hour delivery on orders over £60 for free.
How much does Amazon Fresh cost?
Amazon recently expanded Amazon Fresh beyond only Prime members in the US, though Prime members will still see exclusive discounts. Prime members, for example, receive free delivery on orders over $100 in the US. In the US, non-members pay between $8-14 for delivery, while members pay around $4-10 for orders under $100. Prime membership in the US costs $139 per year or $14.99 per month.
In the UK, delivery costs range from free to £15, depending on the order total and time. Prime members receive free two-hour delivery on orders above £60. With a £95 per year (or £8.99 per month) Prime membership, you can make as many Amazon Fresh orders as you like for no extra cost – as long as they are a minimum of £60 per order and with two-hour delivery. Under £60 and you’ll have to pay £2, under £40 and it’s £4. You also pay more for a one-hour delivery than a two-hour delivery.
It is worth remembering that Prime membership also adds a whole load of other benefits, including free one-day deliveries on millions of Amazon items, Amazon Prime Video streaming, Prime Reading eBooks, and many more. You can read about the different services included with Prime here.
How do you use Amazon Fresh?
Using Fresh is easy. Just head to the dedicated section of Amazon in the UK or the US and browse for your products. Add them to your basket as normal on Amazon, and then you can check if your delivery address is in one of the supported regions.
As Amazon Fresh is part of the regular Amazon Shopping experience, users must be careful not to order from Amazon Pantry or the main Amazon Store by accident. An easy way to do this is to ensure that the search bar at the top says “search in Amazon Fresh.”
What are some items available on Amazon Fresh?
As the name implies, Amazon Fresh is primarily for ordering fresh food and groceries and having them shipped to your home. Here are some items you can find on Amazon Fresh:
That’s just a small sample of the type of stuff you can find on Amazon Fresh. If there’s an item you’d typically walk into your local grocery store to buy, you should be able to find it on Fresh. The biggest thing to note is that the products are generally Amazon Brands, but you can find national brands for products Amazon brands don’t offer. For example, there are products from Pepperidge Farm, Tates, Mission, and Nabisco. But you won’t find brands like Perdue for a product like chicken breast, which Amazon offers through its own brand.
Is Amazon Fresh owned by Whole Foods?
Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods are both owned by Amazon. While Amazon Fresh does not own Whole Foods, both stores are owned by the same company. Because both stores are owned by the same company, there are a few similarities. For example, when Amazon announced that Amazon Fresh would expand beyond Prime members, the company also said delivery from Whole Foods would soon expand to non-Prime members. Some Whole Foods brands are also available from Amazon Fresh.
Despite the similarities, Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods remain separate stores. Items ordered from Whole Foods do not count towards the order total on Amazon Fresh, for example, and deliveries remain separate.
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