Amazon is rolling out a new farmers’ market goods delivery service in Southern California in partnership with grocery delivery startup Fresh Nation.
The service plans on directly delivering the produce from local farms to doorsteps in Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Underpinning the service is Fresh Nation’s vast database of vendors and farmers’ markets across the U.S., which its founder Tony Lee built during a stint at managing a farmers market.
The Stamford, Connecticut-based startup initially ran tests on the East Coast and Southern California to comb out disconnects in its supply chain. Once the process came to be seamless, the company approached Amazon, which gave it access to new customers and Amazon’s delivery network, Lee told The LA Times.
Farmers markets “provide a very efficient distribution center for fresh local food in all the main urban areas,” he said. “That’s the problem we were trying to solve: How do you get fresh local food every day that’s as easy as buying supermarket food?”
The farm-to-doorstep service works by pre-ordering produce based on demand and giving detailed estimates and information about vendors to its personal shoppers who pick it up and pack it in totes at each market, which are then driven to Amazon’s San Bernardino distribution center.
Amazon promises to deliver the produce within 36 hours of its harvest to Amazon Prime Fresh members. Amazon Prime Fresh memberships cost $299 a year, which also covers other Prime benefits like free two-day delivery, same-day delivery, access to its streaming service, and more.
Amazon has been aggressive in its attack of the grocery space, giving stiff competition to its competitors, including Instacart and Stop and Shop’s Peapod, among others.
For more on omnichannel trends, click here to take a look at the Vantiv Omnicommerce Tracker powered by PYMNTS, a monthly recap of the developments within the omnichannel ecosystem.
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