Delivery Wars

Amazon, is expanding its Prime Now service to offer speedy delivery of food from local stores in Manhattan.

According to the company,  customers can order groceries, prepared meals and baked goods from D'Agostino, Gourmet Garage and Billy's Bakery through its Prime Now app and the best part is - two-hour delivery is free for Prime members, while one-hour delivery in "select zip codes" costs $7.99.

This new system started recently in "select neighborhoods" and will be expand through Manhattan in coming weeks. The service will also soon expand to include Eataly, the upscale Italian food and Westside Market.

The news from Amazon comes on the heels of Walmart unveiling a new unlimited shipping service at a price cheaper than Amazon, for now though, it’s just a test for certain customers. In addition, Instacart, the grocery delivery business that began in 2012 is continuing to expand. They’ve  just begun service in their 16^th city, Miami, and have plans to keep expanding north.

With online options growing and companies like amazon continuing to work on their level of speed and convenience as well as big retailers like Walmart pushing their delivery, it’s important for supermarkets to step into the delivery world also.  Today’s time poor customer needs convenience at a good price and with a steadily growing list of online options supermarkets that aren’t in the game could fall behind.