Amazon is letting anyone use its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service, even if they aren’t a Prime member.
The company in August announced the new option to select cities, but now it’s available in all locations where Amazon Fresh delivers to Prime members.
Amazon said on Thursday it will soon also do the same for delivery and pickup from Whole Foods — allowing non-Prime members access to those services.
The moves aim to boost growth for Amazon’s grocery business. Amazon first rolled out Amazon Fresh delivery in 2007. The tech giant later experimented with different models and pricing for grocery delivery, competing with others such as Instacart and traditional grocers. It also invested heavily in brick-and-mortar, buying Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017 and opening its own high-tech Amazon Go convenience stores and larger-scale Amazon Fresh locations.
But in February, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company was pausing the expansion of its Amazon Fresh grocery stores, amid broader cutbacks, “until we have that equation with differentiation and economic value that we like.”
The company also closed eight Amazon Go stores earlier this year.
Amazon Fresh fees for non-Prime members range from $7.95 to $13.95 depending on order size. Pick-up orders, where available, do not have a fee.
Prime members pay $9.95 for deliveries under $50; $6.95 for orders between $50 and $100; and no fee for delivery orders over $100.
Prime members in select areas previously received free Amazon Fresh delivery on any orders over $35, but Amazon tweaked the fee structure in January.
In 2021, Amazon added a $9.95 fee to Whole Foods delivery orders, which were previously free to Prime members who spent more than $35.
Amazon also announced Thursday that based on feedback from redesigning Fresh stores in Chicago, it is doing the same with three stores in Los Angeles.
And it announced that Amazon customers can order delivery from local retailers including Bristol Farms, Cardenas Markets, Pet Food Express, Weis Markets, and Save Mart.
Amazon reported physical store revenue of $4.9 billion, up 6%, during the third quarter.
Instacart this week reported its first earnings since going public, beating expectations for number of orders, with revenue of $764 million, up 14% year-over-year, and a net loss of $2 billion.
