Amazon Opens Grocery Delivery Program to Non-Prime Customers

Amazon is expanding its grocery delivery/pickup program to include shoppers who aren’t Prime subscribers.

The retail giant is making grocery delivery and free pickup available to all customers in any U.S. city or town where its Amazon Fresh grocery stores are available for Prime members, according to a Thursday (Nov. 9) press release.

The service “previously available only to Prime members, makes it easier for all customers to get their grocery needs met both in-store and online,” Amazon said in the release.

Also Thursday, Amazon said customers can now get deliveries from a range of local grocery and specialty retailers available on Amazon.com, including Bristol Farms, Cardenas Markets, Pet Food Express, Weis Markets and Save Mart.

The company plans to soon expand its grocery delivery and free pickup offerings to non-Prime member customers to include Whole Foods Market pickups and delivery.

“Once fully launched across all Whole Foods Market locations, customers in more than 3,500 cities and towns across the U.S. will have access to two-hour grocery delivery from Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods Market,” the release said.

Thursday’s announcement comes a little more than a month after Amazon said it was lowering the threshold for free grocery delivery for Prime members to $100. That was down from the previous minimum of $150, which itself was imposed earlier this year, a sharp increase from the company’s previous $35 threshold.

Major retailers are contending with the challenge of making eGrocery more profitable while also garnering customer loyalty and fending off competition. Amazon-rival Walmart offers its Walmart+ members free grocery delivery on orders of more than $35, while non-members pay between $7.95 and $9.95.

For Amazon’s part, the company has been trying to grow grocery sales, a category in which Walmart has a significant lead. PYMNTS Intelligence showed that Walmart holds a 19.3% share of consumers’ food and beverage spend, nearly eight times that of Amazon.

Amazon had hinted at the plan to change its delivery options earlier this year as part of a broader overhaul of its grocery operations that includes updated stores and the merging of its eCommerce grocery offerings — Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh and its main website — into a single online cart.