Amazon has officially launched its first entry into the somewhat-crowded world of local food delivery—and we're not talking groceries or fresh produce here. The "we want to ship everything to you" company has officially unveiled Amazon Takeout & Delivery, which lets you place orders at restaurants for just that.
As you might expect, you can pay for your food via your standard Amazon account. Amazon isn't doing the delivering; it's just connecting you to restaurants that do.
In a bit of a departure from the common "standard delivery fee" practice that competing services offer, Amazon's service lets restaurants charge whatever they want for their delivery fees. At least, that's what we gathered when we pulled up Takeout & Delivery listings for Seattle, WA—some restaurants offered free delivery; some charged up to $5 for your order. Restaurants can also set a minimum total order amount before they'll let you order for delivery. Takeout is just that—takeout.
It remains to be seen just how Amazon's offering will compete with the multitude of different companies that offer a similar service, if not one that is fairly refined at this point. Especially if these competing services will happily go get your order for you and bring it to your door—allowing them to include more restaurants on their lists and, as a result, more interest from customers.
That said, Amazon's service is still in a trial phase, so Amazon could make some modifications to the service if, or when, it rolls out to new areas. Only those in Seattle can currently partake in Amazon Takeout & Delivery, and there's been no indication as to when the service might expand to new areas.
Given Amazon's interest in becoming your go-to company for all things you need for your home or apartment—be they conventional items you've ordered through the company's online listings, local contractors you've found via Amazon's listings, or grocery deliveries, to name a few options—it stands to reason that Amazon isn't really looking to just give restaurant food delivery a try.
"There are several startups going after food, but there are over 600,000 restaurants in the U.S. If the market has already proven that it can support that many restaurants, I would argue that there is room for one, two, five, or ten more coming at it from a completely different angle," said Scott Stanford, co-founder of Sherpa Ventures, in an interview with GeekWire.