Yahoo Finance Amazon’s grocery subscription program has some strings attached
It lowers to threshold for free deliveries to $35, so long as you have Prime and pay an extra $10 a month.
After asserting itself as an overshadowing presence in retail, Amazon is still experimenting with ways to leave a similar mark in groceries. The company’s latest delivery service option lowers the minimum price for free grocery deliveries from $100 to $35. However, most customers using the service will also need to pay a $10 monthly subscription in addition to having a Prime membership ($15 monthly or $139 annually).
The new subscription is available in 3,500 supported cities and towns in the US. (When signing up, it will let you know if your primary shipping address isn’t supported.) The service offers unlimited grocery deliveries from Amazon Fresh, the Amazon-owned Whole Foods and various local and specialty partners. Those include Cardenas Markets, Save Mart, Bartell Drugs, Rite Aid, Pet Food Express, Mission Wine & Spirits and more.
The subscription includes one-hour delivery windows where available, unlimited 30-minute pickup orders and priority access to the company’s Recurring Reservations. This feature lets you pick a weekly grocery delivery window. To use it, you’ll need to pick your weekly two-hour slot at least 24 hours in advance.
People using the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can get the same grocery delivery benefits for half the price ($5 monthly). If you fall in that camp, you can get those perks without needing a Prime subscription on top of the subscription fee.
Amazon has continued to iterate on its grocery strategy with myriad options now available. Early last year, the company increased the minimum checkout price for free grocery deliveries from $35 to $150, then dropped it to $100 about 10 months later. Amazon says that its subscription "pays for itself in as little as one delivery order per month from Whole Foods Market, or one delivery order per month from Amazon Fresh for under $50."
Before rolling out the new grocery subscription on Tuesday, Amazon tested it in Columbus, OH, Denver, CO, and Sacramento, CA, in late 2023. The company says over 85 percent of survey respondents who used the service were “extremely” or “very” satisfied, leaving high marks for its convenience and savings on delivery fees.
You can see if the program is available in your area on Amazon’s groceries sign-up page. If it is, you can try it free for 30 days before paying.
Update, April 26, 12:30PM ET: This article was updated after publishing with additional detail from Amazon on how the new subscription functions.
