Amazon is the 900 ton gorilla in the world of internet commerce. It always seems like they're cooking up some sort of new product offering. Their latest one takes that quite literally. Amazon is getting into the business of food delivery.
The new service allows people to order food from Amazon off of their smartphones and have it delivered to their address within 60 minutes. Amazon won't be cooking the food themselves, but they will be using their fleet of delivery drivers to get the food to its destination. Currently the service is only in Seattle and only to Prime Now subscribers, but job postings in major cities show that they may be expanding very soon.
Getting your food delivered anywhere in the city is free right now, but it is expected that Amazon will charge a delivery fee at some point. The service pits Amazon against other delivery services like GrubHub and Uber's new food delivery service.
Many restaurants never consider delivery due to the cost of hiring a driver and maintaining a vehicle, but if Amazon and other businesses do it for them, then we may see a big spike in restaurant equipment purchases just to keep up with the new demand. Get your Edlund can openers warmed up! Will we see a paradigm shift in how Americans order food in the next few years? Only time will tell.
