Fresh Fruits and Foods to Your Door

 

Amazon's new web grocery store will offer 22,000 brands
AmazonFresh Images
 

       In my last blog post, I explored AmazonFresh, a company that is expanding its grocery delivery to other cities besides Seattle.  Since then, I decided I needed more information about how the companies will store the perishables until they reach your doorstep.  This led me to an article titled “Amazon Is Working on a Plan to Deliver Your Groceries”, published on Business Insider website. Author, Jim Edwards informs us that ” Observers were tipped that Amazon might be making more moves in groceries when they observed the company adding refrigeration equipment to distribution centers outside the Seattle area."

 

       After reading this article in Business Insider, I found an article by Contel Bradford, which was published on IBM’s Midsize Insider website. This article title "Amazon Expanding Prime Service with Grocery Offerings" in which the author cites Anne Zybowski, vice president of retail insights at Kantar Retail and states “AmazonFresh has arranged to have its fresh items delivered by butcher shops, delis, fish markets and other local food companies. The internet retailer charges these businesses a commission on food item sales.” I think this is an excellent win-win relationship for local businesses and producers of foods and food products. Further, the local business will gain access to a much larger market base than they ever could have attracted without the involvement a larger marketer like AmazonFresh.

Fresh Vegetables
delivered from AmazonFresh
AmazonFresh images

        In the first article, Edwards pointed out that Amazon might be adding to refrigeration equipment to their distribution centers.  In the second article  Bradford points out that AmazonFresh has arranged local food companies to deliver your fresh items directly from them. He claims that AmazonFresh is looking to local businesses to supply their fresh foods. I  believe that AmazonFresh is still trying to work out which way is best to deliver fresh perishable items to your doorstep.

        As of July 2013, AmazonFresh delivers to Seattle and Los Angeles.  If you live in those areas, setting up an account with AmazonFresh is as easy as a click of a button. Just go to AmazonFresh website and type in your address to see if they deliver to your neighborhood, then you set up an account with them and you place your order. That's all there is to it! They even have a mobile application to order on. 

 

AmazonFresh sign-up page
AmazonFresh images

        

           For $299 a year (membership costs) you can have fresh food delivered to your doorstep any time any day of the week. In my next blog, I will find information on the overall costs of this service and will it be worth it in the long run. Is that a hefty membership cost or  does the fee offset the time spent doing other things?

 

Works cited:

Jim Edwards “Amazon is working on a plan to deliver your groceries” Business Insider (2013) Web. 26 May 2013. http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-and-grocery-delivery-2013-5

Contel Bradford “Amazon Expanding Prime Service with Grocery Offerings” Midsize Insider (2013) Web. 10 July 2013. http://midsizeinsider.com/en-us/article/amazon-expanding-prime-service-with-groc