Amazon wants people to shop for eggs, milk, and other fresh groceries on its online shop.
The e-commerce giant announced on Wednesday that same-day delivery for perishable grocery items, including meat and seafood, is now available in more than 1,000 cities, including Phoenix, Orlando, Raleigh, and Milwaukee. It plans to expand the service even further to over 2,300 U.S. cities by the end of the year and even more towns in 2026.
“We’re continuously innovating to make grocery shopping simpler, faster, and more affordable for our customers, especially Prime members,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, in a press release.
He added that eligible customers can now “order milk alongside electronics; oranges, apples, and potatoes with a mystery novel; and frozen pizza at the same time as tools for their next home improvement project” and get everything dropped off at their door within hours.
This is part of Amazon’s continued efforts to disrupt the lucrative $1 trillion grocery industry. The company acquired Whole Foods in 2017 and first opened physical Amazon Fresh grocery stores in 2020. The newly expanded service now puts Amazon in even more direct competition with Walmart and other grocery delivery services like Instacart. Both companies’ stocks took a hit following the announcement.
Prime members get free Same-Day Delivery on grocery orders that cost more than $25 in most cities. Orders below that can still get delivered the same day for a fee of $2.99. Non-Prime customers can also use the service for a flat $12.99 fee, no matter how much they spend.
Amazon says early adoption in regions where the service was already available has shown just how popular groceries are with Prime customers. Strawberries regularly push AirPods out of the top five best-selling products, while bananas, Honeycrisp apples, limes, and avocados rank among the most popular items in same-day grocery delivery orders.
The company first rolled out same-day delivery services in 2015 and has since become an expert in logistics. For its fresh grocery deliveries, which can be very sensitive to temperature, Amazon relies on its specialized, temperature-controlled fulfillment network. The company says every item goes through a six-point quality check both upon arrival and before being delivered in recyclable, insulated bags.
Amazon says it has already generated $100 billion in gross sales of groceries and household essentials in 2024, excluding sales from Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. During the first three months of 2025, sales of everyday essentials — including groceries — grew more than twice as fast as all other categories in the U.S., accounting for one out of every three units sold, according to Amazon.
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