The e-commerce giant Amazon has reportedly announced to have launched curbside pickup service at its Whole Foods stores across the U.S. As per trusted sources, customers can now order groceries through the Amazon’s Prime Now app or by visiting the website’s Whole Foods section.
Sources claim that the groceries can be picked up from the store 30 minutes after placing the order for a fee of $4.99. However, the fee is waived if the customer is ready to wait for an hour or more provided the order amount is at least $35.
Incidentally, Walmart, the biggest name in the grocery market of the U.S., has already been offering pickup service at its 1,800 stores and plans to extend the number to 2,200 by the end of 2018. Amazon’s curbside pickup facility is being launched in Sacramento, California & Virginia Beach, Virginia.
As per a report by CNN Money, the facility would be launched in more cities by the end of this year. Amazon is further integrating Alexa into the grocery shopping experience. Reportedly, customers can add grocery items to their Whole Foods cart which would be included in their pickup order.
For the uninitiated, the service is part of Amazon Prime subscription which is currently charged at $12.99/month or $119/year. Prime subscription also includes exclusive discounts, access to Prime video’s shows & movies along with free two-day shipping of online orders, cite sources.
According to analysts, even after price hike of Prime membership from $99 to $119, it is still considered as an essential service by many customers. The U.S. groceries market is worth around $800 billion, reports suggest.
For the record, Amazon acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion last year and has about 467 stores in the US. Reportedly, Whole Foods currently has a 1 percent share of the overall grocery market in the U.S.
