Amazon is widening Prime’s Same-Day Delivery service to include fresh groceries—such as blueberries, milk, meat, seafood, baked goods, and frozen items—alongside everyday products, all in a single cart, delivered within hours. The service now spans over 1,000 U.S. cities and towns, with plans to reach more than 2,300 by the end of 2025. Prime members receive free delivery on eligible orders of $25 or more, while smaller baskets face a $2.99 fee. Non-members can still use the service for a $12.99 per-order charge. This nationwide expansion marks a bold grocery push from Amazon, allowing shoppers to consolidate perishables and non-food items in one seamless checkout experience. With convenience at its core, Amazon is doubling down on making groceries as easy as clicking “Buy Now.”
A Bigger Push Into The Grocery Market
This new rollout differs significantly from earlier Amazon grocery strategies, which focused primarily on Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh branded outlets. Instead, Amazon integrates perishable items into its existing Same-Day logistics infrastructure, enabling a broader reach. The company ensures freshness by employing temperature-controlled handling processes, insulated recyclable bags, and rigorous multi-step quality inspections that protect food integrity during delivery. The offer is straightforward and customer-centric: order strawberries with socks or dairy with detergent, and receive everything together—often by the afternoon. Amazon emphasized the scale of its grocery operations, noting that groceries and household essentials generated over $100 billion in 2024. The company intends to further expand its same-day footprint, bringing faster deliveries to more communities and potentially reshaping shopper expectations.
Rivals Feel The Heat
Amazon’s expanded grocery service positions it squarely against rivals like Walmart, Instacart, Kroger, and Target, all of which are ramping up their own rapid fulfillment capabilities. Following the announcement, Amazon’s stock ticked upward, while Instacart (Maplebear) and DoorDash saw declines as investors anticipated intensified fee and pricing competition. Amazon’s advantages include the relatively low $25 free-delivery threshold for Prime—a stark contrast to many competitors’ higher minimums. Additionally, shoppers can bundle groceries with millions of general merchandise items, boosting order frequency and basket size. This convenience-focused model may sway consumers toward Amazon for both planned grocery trips and last-minute essentials, creating a compelling value proposition.
What It Means For Shoppers And Stores
For consumers, this expansion translates to unmatched ease and speed—one cart, one checkout, and groceries delivered with Prime-level reliability. The low free-delivery threshold encourages “top-up” purchases, reducing mid-week store runs for perishable items or forgotten ingredients. As the program grows, even households in less densely populated areas may benefit from predictable delivery options and fewer emergency trips to the store. However, the move raises the stakes for traditional supermarket chains. With increasing grocery demand shifting online, retailers will likely revisit delivery minimums, loyalty perks, and promotional strategies. Amazon’s approach—delivering perishables from Same-Day hubs rather than grocer-branded locations—sets a new benchmark for convenience. In response, supermarkets may bolster delivery partnerships, expand pickup and curbside scheduling, sharpen private-label pricing, or even roll out incentives to keep customers from migrating entirely online. The pressure could also spur innovation in cold-chain logistics and last-mile delivery models across the industry.