Whole Foods Delivery Comes To New York And Florida

Expanding its Prime Now grocery delivery service, Amazon is bringing the offering to more customers on the East Coast. The retailer, which delivers Whole Foods Market orders through the service, added areas of New York City along with three cities in Florida to the platform, CNBC reported.

“We’ve been delighted with the customer response to delivery in as little as an hour through Prime Now, and we’re excited to bring the service to our customers in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Palm Beach, Long Island and New York City,” Whole Foods Market Executive Vice President of Operations Christina Minardi said in an announcement. “Today’s announcement is another way that we are continuing to expand access to our high-quality products and locally-sourced favorites.”

At the same time, Florida and New York are competitive markets for grocery: In New York, for example, Walmart’s Jet is starting to market same-day grocery delivery in New York. And, while Publix has long dominated the grocery market in Florida, grocers such as Lucky’s Market and Sprouts Farmers Market are starting to open.

The news comes after Denver, Sacramento and San Diego joined the Prime Now lineup in April. The Prime Now platform allows Prime members to shop a few thousand items, ranging from produce, bakery, dairy, meat and seafood to floral and everyday staples. A selection of alcohol is also available for delivery to customers in Sacramento and San Diego.

Customers who can handle a two-hour window get their goods shipped for free with their Prime membership, while those who need a rushed delivery can elect to pay a $7.99 fee on orders of $35 or more. In addition, customers can order between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. each day.

Those expansions are, according to Amazon, only part of what is planned for the rest of 2018. The goal is to roll out Prime Now Grocery via Whole Foods to metro areas across the U.S. in 2018. Initially, the service was available in four markets: Virginia Beach, Austin, Dallas and Cincinnati.