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Amazon is launching a new grocery delivery subscription for Prime members and customers who use EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) to pay for their groceries.
The service is $9.99 for Prime members or $4.99 per month for EBT shoppers and offers unlimited grocery delivery throughout the month on orders over $35 from Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods, and several other local grocery and specialty retailers on Amazon.com. EBT shoppers do not need a Prime membership to participate, though people with EBT can get Prime for $6.99 per month versus $14.99.
Grocery delivery is available in 3,500 cities and towns across the United States and includes one-hour delivery windows at no extra cost when they’re available as well as unlimited 30-minute pickup orders of any size.
Prime members who sign up for the service will also get exclusive discounts on some products being sold on Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market.’
If free delivery sounds familiar, it’s possibly because Amazon previously offered free delivery for Prime members on orders over $35 or $50, depending on where you lived. As the service gained in popularity, Amazon raised that order threshold to $150 for free delivery. It dropped that requirement down to $100 last October, possibly because that $150 requirement was more of a deterrent than anticipated.
While $9.99 a month represents a discount now on smaller orders if you’re ordering several times a month, it’s technically a price hike if you take into account that Amazon used to offer the exact same thing without a monthly fee on top of Prime.
If you’re interested in trying out the grocery delivery service, Amazon is currently offering a free 30-day trial of the service so you can take it out for a test spin.