Amazon Takes Aim at Walmart in Grocery Delivery Push

Amazon is pushing into one of the few retail sectors it hasn’t conquered: groceries.

Amazon Fresh has struggled to gain traction with consumers, particularly in brick-and-mortar grocery—still the dominant channel for purchases. (Photo: Amazon)

The e-commerce giant is expanding same-day grocery deliveries to more than 1,000 locations nationwide, with plans to reach over 2,300 by the end of 2025 in a direct challenge to Walmart, Sabrina Escobar, Nate Wolf, and Janet H. Cho reported for Barron’s Daily.

Prime members can get free delivery on orders of $25 or more (or pay $2.99 for smaller orders), while nonmembers are charged $12.99.

Walmart, along with grocers Kroger, Albertsons, and Publix, maintains a larger share of the trillion-dollar grocery market. Amazon’s 22.6% share still trails Walmart’s 32%, according to eMarketer research.

The initiative is designed to complement Amazon’s existing grocery services, including Whole Foods’ online market and Amazon Fresh. Its 2017 purchase of Whole Foods was aimed at boosting Amazon’s so-called last-mile delivery capabilities.

The company has been trying to break into the grocery market for years.

Meanwhile, Amazon is facing fresh competition in food and grocery delivery from newer players such as Instacart, Uber Technologies, and DoorDash. It plans to invest $4 billion to triple the size of its delivery network by 2026.

Amazon Fresh has struggled to gain traction with consumers, particularly in brick-and-mortar grocery—still the dominant channel for purchases.

In 2023, Amazon temporarily halted the opening of new Fresh stores and closed a few underperforming locations.