Amazon to offer fresh produce
Residents of Seattle’s Mercer Island will be the first targets for a new pilot project by Amazon.com called Amazon Fresh. According to an article on seattlepi.com, Amazon Fresh is a new home grocery delivery service, similar to that offered by companies like Grocery Gateway.
“It’s just starting out, and it’s very small. We are in the early-stage beta test, and it’s a better way to serve our grocery customers,” said Craig Berman, an Amazon.com spokesman. “We are offering a great selection and great prices at a really convenient experience.”
Berman said Amazon Fresh would offer items found in a local grocery store, including organic and non-organic fruits and vegetables, dairy products, ice cream, meat, fish, health and personal care items, cereal, chips and soda.
The program lets customers order online and then have the products delivered the next day during a one-hour time slot of their choosing.
We know that Amazon has been dealing in non-book goods for a long time now, but there’s something about this new venture – and the way Amazon seems to see books and heads of lettuce as basically interchangeable – that makes us want to crawl back into bed.
(Incidentally, the seattlepi piece goes on to note that, for the moment, books will not be included among grocery items. But if there has to be an Amazon home grocery service, wouldn’t it be better if books were included?)
