This year, some Americans participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, aka “Food Stamps”), will be able to pay for groceries online through Amazon, FreshDirect, and some supermarket chains. Given that food delivery services have thus far tended to cater to higher-income consumers, why are these companies — and in particular, Amazon — eager to accept SNAP payments? [More]
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Amazon Contractor Agrees To Pay Drivers $100K In Phantom Lunch Breaks
By 10.28.16
What if your employer deducted lunch breaks from your time sheet, but you weren’t allowed to actually take any time for lunch? That’s what New York’s attorney general says happened to employees of Cornucopia Logistics, a contractor that handles deliveries for Amazon and for its grocery delivery service in New York City. The company has settled with the state, and will pay affected workers and former workers $100,000 in back wages for the practice. [More]
Amazon Reportedly Opening Convenience Stores & Dedicated Curbside Pickup Sites
By 10.11.16
Days after Amazon announced it would slash the price of its Fresh grocery subscription service, the company is reportedly jumping into the food delivery business with both feet, working on plans to open bricks-and-mortar convenience stores, and offering curbside pickup for Fresh orders.
Amazon Will Charge $15 Monthly Fee For Prime Fresh, Not $299 Yearly Fee
By 10.7.16
Amazon is definitely looking to expand its grocery delivery business. After experimenting with different pricing models in a few different markets, the company has settled on one scheme for the whole country, and it’s a lower barrier to entry than the previous $299 up-front annual fee. Now customers who want grocery delivery will only pay $14.99 per month… on top of their Prime subscription. [More]
U.S. Postal Service Asks To Continue Grocery Delivery Experiment Until Fall 2017, Expand To More Cities
By 7.12.16
Looking for more revenue sources, the U.S. Postal Service would really like to put their delivery fleet and employees to work delivering pretty much anything that someone will pay them to deliver. That includes groceries, dry cleaning, and pretty much anything else that will fit in a USPS vehicle that can be lugged to customers’ doorsteps. A test of “customized delivery services” began back in 2014, and the USPS has asked to extend it until October 2017. [More]
Amazon Really Wants To Sell You Groceries, Is Expanding “Prime Fresh” To More Cities
By 5.24.16
Big box brick and mortar stores have long since expanded into selling you fresh and packaged groceries to go along with your clothes, books, electronics, and housewares. Amazon, unwilling to be left behind by any 21st century shopping trend, now seems ready to expand their own grocery offerings right on cue. [More]
If You Want To Use Amazon Fresh You’ll Have To Pay $299/Year For PrimeFresh First
By 10.19.15
How much are you willing to pay to have bags of fresh produce, and other grocery items delivered to your door anytime of the year? If you live in Seattle, Philadelphia, or New York, Amazon’s hoping $299/year is the magic number. [More]
Google Wants To Get Into Fresh Grocery Delivery Game
By 9.8.15
After years of running its Google Express service — which offers same-day delivery on merchandise and packaged foods from a variety of retailers to customers in a handful of markets around the country — the Internet giant is now reportedly confident enough to try its hand at bringing fresh food and groceries to consumers’ doors. [More]
Someone Is Planning A Drive-Thru Grocery Store In Silicon Valley: Maybe Amazon
By 7.27.15
A real estate developer has filed building plans for an 11,000-square foot grocery pickup facility in Sunnyvale, CA, but won’t say who their client is. Sunnyvale is the Silicon Valley town where Yahoo is based, but word in the local real estate community is that their new grocer isn’t a local startup: it’s Amazon. [More]
Del Monte Recalls Fruit Snack Packs Potentially Contaminated With Listeria
By 12.10.14
Sure, we feel like we’re doing something righteous and healthy when we buy a package of cut fresh fruit for a snack instead of cookies or a candy bar, but there are times when choosing fresh fruit can come back to bite you. That’s the case for some Del Monte fruit snacks sold in grocery and convenience stores. [More]
USPS Gets Go-Ahead To Expand Deliveries Of Groceries & Other Stuff
By 10.23.14
Last month, the cash-strapped street urchin that is the U.S. Postal Service pleaded “more gruel, sir” to the Postal Regulatory Commission, asking for permission to expand its test of delivering groceries and other non-postal items during those wee-morning hours when mail trucks mostly sit idle. Today, the PRC granted the USPS its wish. [More]
Amazon Fresh Reaches East Coast But Only For Select Group Of Brooklynites
By 10.17.14
Residents of New York City jealous of their West Coast counterparts for receiving sometimes-fresh grocery deliveries from Amazon should pine no more. The e-tailer began deliveries of Amazon Fresh in a very concentrated area of the Big Apple today. [More]
USPS Wants To Leave Groceries, Other Stuff On Your Doorstep At 4 A.M.
By 9.26.14
Earlier this month it was announced that the U.S. Postal Service was testing out how badly it could screw up the delivery of Amazon Fresh grocery shipments in the San Francisco area. But a recent regulatory filing shows that USPS has hopes of bringing its laid-back, carefree delivery approach to groceries and other items all around the country. [More]
USPS To Screw Up Amazon Grocery Deliveries In San Francisco
By 9.4.14
Like that desperate, failing business-owner who keeps convincing people to give them one last shot to prove that it’s not yet time to hang it up and find something else to do, the U.S. Postal Service has somehow made a deal with Amazon to give it a shot at delivering groceries in the San Francisco area. [More]
Amazon Fresh Promotes New Service By Delivering Bags Of Distinctly Unfresh Groceries
By 1.13.14
While it might be a nice surprise to receive a free, unexpected groceries on your doorstep, some San Francisco residents are a bit puzzled as to why Amazon is pushing its new Fresh delivery service with free bags of very unfresh items. A can of Coke, mushroom soup and fish taco seasoning? Dinner is served! [More]
