Amazon Prime Members Score Free Grocery Delivery

Amazon continues to enmesh its e-commerce dominance with its relatively new foray into grocery. Thanks to its ownership of Whole Foods, Amazon is now offering Prime members free grocery delivery from that chain as well as from its Amazon Fresh grocery delivery service (where available), TechCrunch and other outlets report. Previously, Amazon Fresh delivery cost $14.99 per month for Prime members.

This seems primarily of interest to Prime members who were only lukewarm on grocery delivery, considering it something they might use here and there, but not enough to pony up the $15. Now, if you're an Amazon Prime member who finds themselves reluctant to grocery shop on an especially cold fall night, there's no extra fee stopping you from having Whole Foods produce delivered to your doorstep.

Vox notes grocery delivery is a notoriously tough business with thin margins. So how can Amazon afford to do this? Hah, because it's Amazon! The company is likely willing to take a small financial hit on grocery delivery in pursuit of a long-term strategy: taking over your retail and entertainment needs until every transaction in your day comes via Amazon.