Amazon is diversifying its marketplace and fulfillment centers to allow prime members to add goods from Amazon.com, comma, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods to one cart.
Speaker AAccording to retail Dive, Amazon is piloting a new feature in its Phoenix market that enables prime members to shop for grocery items alongside Amazon.com products and have them delivered together.
Speaker AThe trial allows Amazon prime members to shop for grocery essentials, including fresh items alongside Amazon.com goods, and have them delivered together in hours.
Speaker AThe capability also gives shoppers access to the usual same day delivery speed and selection of multiple delivery windows.
Speaker AAmazon plans to extend this model to more locations as it continues to quote, test, and learn, end quote, and anticipates more customers will continue to opt for same day delivery from Amazon for grocery shopping.
Speaker AAll right, Chris, where do you sit?
Speaker AAre you buying or selling this consolidated grocery shopping via Amazon?
Speaker BBuying or selling?
Speaker BUm, I'm a hard buy on this one and, uh.
Speaker AOh, really?
Speaker BOkay.
Speaker BYeah, I am.
Speaker BI'm a hard buy.
Speaker BI think it's smart.
Speaker BI mean, that's my first point.
Speaker BMy second point, though, would be like, why did this take so long?
Speaker BThat's, that's my big question here.
Speaker BAnd the other thing that, the other thing I'm going to bring to the table here is I actually think this tells me how much Walmart is eating their lunch and e commerce.
Speaker AGrocery, yes.
Speaker BBecause if you think back, Walmart actually had two experiences.
Speaker BI think it was like two or three years ago, they merged them together, and ever since, they haven't looked back like they're just crushing it.
Speaker BRight.
Speaker BWhich makes sense because you want to get a, it's, it's the whole idea of mass merchandise.
Speaker BYou want to get everything in one cart delivered to you at once.
Speaker BYou don't want to have to go through two experiences.
Speaker BLike, that's not good from a shopping standpoint.
Speaker BSo Amazon is clearly playing catch up when you think about it from that angle.
Speaker BBut swinging back around, I think ultimately it makes sense because you can get your weekly shopping list done all in one place on Amazon, and you can add any other items you want to during the course of a week or during the course of building your cart.
Speaker BSo.
Speaker BBut, and then with that said, I think retailers like Walmart, Target, Costco, they can't be liking this announcement because I think it makes Amazon more stronger in grocery part and parcel.
Speaker BBut my only question, though, I didn't have time.
Speaker BMaybe you had time to research this.
Speaker BI didn't have time to research it.
Speaker BYesterday's.
Speaker BMy other question is, like, I mean, it's only in Phoenix.
Speaker BBut how does it work with like the up charges for Amazon delivery for grocery versus prime?
Speaker BLike, that probably gets really confusing within this flow too.
Speaker BSo I don't understand that either.
Speaker BBut, but what did you think you buy and sell?
Speaker AYeah, I don't, you know, I think I'm more leaning towards your, why did it take this so take them so long to do this?
Speaker ABecause to me this is like, from a customer perspective, this is just a slight modification to the user experience of ordering from Amazon already.
Speaker AAnd my hope is exactly what you hit on that it actually, the benefit to the customer here is that it gets them to that $35 daily delivery threshold faster, which seems to be like the biggest benefit because before you were adding, like, say you wanted to, do you know your Amazon stock up trip, not only do you have multiple carts going and because some things are coming from Amazon fresh, some are coming from Whole Foods, and some are coming from Amazon, but to me it actually seems like this is doing more benefit on Amazon's part than it is.
Speaker ALike on the customer front, the only benefit the customer gets, like, do they really care if their things are bundled?
Speaker ALike, I don't know that that's the case, I think, you know, yes, maybe the delivery window being the same is, is nice, but to me it's, this is like Amazon making logistical changes, you know, doing, testing, putting more things in one warehouse so that they can have fewer drivers out on the road and fewer deliveries going to the same destination, more so than it's really like an enhanced customer experience.
Speaker BThat's interesting because I don't know, that's interesting because I don't know that I care if my deliveries are bundled, but I care that my shopping experience is bundled.
Speaker BLike, this is actually been, this has been a limiting factor for me, trying Amazon for grocery because I'm like, oh, I got to go to another place to do this.
Speaker BAnd that's prevented me from actually wanting to use it as much as I probably could have over these past few years.
Speaker ARight.
Speaker BParticularly during the pandemic, too, if you think about it.
Speaker BSo I think the consumer side of it for shopping is fine, but delivery points are interesting.
Speaker BBut for me as a consumer, yeah, I don't know that I care that they're bundled as long as I get them.
Speaker BWhen you say I'm going to get them and my packages from Amazon arrive at different times right now, even if I check out with one cart.
Speaker BSo like, what's the big deal, you know?
Speaker AYeah, yeah.
Speaker AI'm really curious to see that threshold because that's what kept me from doing it before.
Speaker ALike you, I do want to put all my stuff in one grocery shopping trip.
Speaker AI can get it from Amazon, but if I can't get same day delivery because I only have two items from Whole Foods and then one item from am, like, then I'm just like, no, I'm done.
Speaker AI'll go pick it up at Target or Walmart, which I'm wondering if customers might start to do anyway.
Speaker BYeah, it feels like this is, there's a lot to still figure out here on how this is going to work with all the different things they've got going on in this, this whole idea.
Speaker BAnd it doesn't seem, I don't know, it's, yeah, we're going to talk more about this.
Speaker BWe got, we got a complimentary headline and headline five, which I cannot wait to get to.
Speaker BBut yeah, there's, it seems like there's a lot, lot to this enchilada, and this is not a, yet, it's an enchilada.