Amazon launches its own supermarket delivery service
From today, Amazon will be offering a same-day fresh food delivery service to Amazon Prime members. But will it actually save you cash?
Today, Amazon is taking one step further towards its ultimate goal of world domination, by officially busting its way into the UK's already intensely competitive grocery market.
With the launch of their own same-day supermarket delivery service, dubbed Amazon Fresh, the online giant will be offering a not-so-modest selection of over 130,000 grocery items to shoppers, as well as same-day delivery on most transactions.
A good day for consumers, but another bleak one for the UK's ‘Big Four’ supermarkets – Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, as well as Waitrose’s online delivery partner, Ocado – who are already battling to compete with the likes of Aldi and Lidl on the best value prices front!
Amazon Fresh will initially launch across 69 postcodes in Central and East London (of course it will), but we're told that the company plan to roll the service out across the UK as soon as possible – although no official dates have been mentioned yet.
Ajay Kavan, vice-president of Amazon Fresh, told The Daily Telegraph:
We are launching with a comprehensive offer in a limited area and will take our time to hone and improve our service based on our learnings and feedback from our customers...We will be very methodical and considered in how we roll this service out further in the UK.
What’s different about Amazon fresh?
Before you get all excited, it’s worth noting that it's unlikely you'll notice anything particularly special about the kind of products that Amazon Fresh are selling, and prices probably won't beat other supermarkets substantially either (at least for now).
However, in order to compete with current low supermarket prices, Amazon will be delivering Morrisons own-brand basic produce when it comes to white-label basics like milk and biscuits, as they currently have a partnership with them.
A not-so-bleak day for Morrisons, then, at least!
What is likely to win shoppers over with this service, however, is what Amazon do best: seriously fast delivery.
Amazon have claimed that any grocery orders received before 1pm will be delivered to your door before 11pm the same day!
Will Amazon Fresh save you money?
Unless you’re already happily paying for an Amazon Prime membership, signing up to Amazon Fresh isn’t cheap.
Prime members already pay an annual fee of £79 to get free delivery all year round on any Amazon products. To qualify for Amazon Fresh, Prime members will also have to pay an additional £6.99 monthly fee on top of that, which gets them free delivery on any orders above £40.
All in, this works out at £13.57 per month for Prime and Fresh memberships combined.
Therefore, this isn't the cheapest service out there for students, but if you live in shared housing and think you could convince your flatmates to split the fee between you, it could work out handy (specially when you consider that Tesco charge £5 per home delivery!).
Check out our guide to saving big on your supermarket shop, and make sure you watch out for these dirty tricks supermarkets pull to try and make you spend more!
