Amazon Prime Now. Skip the trip, one hour delivery. (app and service review)
Amazon.com recently became the world’s largest retailer in 2015, surpassing the mighty Walmart and has established themselves by offering great prices, quick and reliable shipping, with other free services as well.
Amazon also recently made its Prime Now service(requires an Amazon Prime membership) available in San Diego, and being a HUGE fan of Amazon, I had to give it a try.
What is Amazon Prime Now?
Prime Now is a new same-day delivery service from Amazon.com, local grocery stores and merchants. In San Diego, Northgate market, Sprouts grocery, Sprinkles Cupcakes and Amazon.com are the five retailers that will deliver to my zip code. The nearest Northgate market is a 30 minute drive for me, and I like to shop there as it isa specialty Hispanic foods store. There’s nothing like authentic food, and I can’t find many of those foods in my local Ralph’s or Whole Foods.
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Prime Now connects local businesses to Prime customers and can deliver frozen and refrigerated foods, fresh baked goods, laundry detergent, or almost any other need you might have around the house.
Two-hour delivery is FREE and one-hour delivery is available in most areas for just $7.99. Prime Now is available from early morning to late night, seven days a week. Currently available in select areas including:
Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles & Orange County, Miami, Minneapolis & St. Paul, New York City, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle & Eastside
• Shop for groceries, gifts, goodies and more from your favorite local stores:
– Los Angeles: Sprouts, Bristol Farms, and Sprinkles Cupcakes
– New York City: Westside Market, D’Agostinos, Gourmet Garage, and Billy’s Bakery
– Portland: New Seasons Market, World Foods, Uwajimaya, and Cupcake Jones
– San Diego: Sprouts, Bristol Farms, Northgate Market, and Sprinkles Cupcakes
• Seattle: Get delivery from your favorite restaurants
– Cactus, Skillet, Wild Ginger, Marination Station, Mamnoon, and many more.
My experience with Prime Now
Prime Now offers free same day delivery, Sundays included, and charges $7.99 if you want it within the next hour.
Since I am cooking dinner for my sister and brother-in-law for Thanksgiving, I remembered I needed to go grocery shopping last night while I was laying in bed. Luckily Amazon is running a special GETITNOW promotion where you can save $20 off your first $50 dollar order. All you have to do is enter the promotional code at checkout to save $20.
I downloaded the Prime Now app from the Google Play store, signed in with my account and saw the five merchants available to my zip code. I first went shopping at Sprouts, which is a local grocery store chain that offers really fresh produce and meats at a fraction of the cost of Whole Foods.
I ordered a fresh 12-14 pound turkey, celery, carrots, fresh french bread, oranges, sweet potatoes, yams, white potatoes, onions, green beans and more. There was a $50 dollar minimum order, but with delivery being free I didn’t mind at all as I really needed to stock up and prepare for Thanksgiving. The nearest Sprouts to me is five miles away, and for many of you that isn’t far, but for me this is more about convenience. I do live a block away from a Ralph’s grocery store, but it is expensive and I also hate grocery shopping. Being single, I prefer to just get food from the many restaurants around me.
Once I was done with my Sprouts order, rather than driving 20 miles to the nearest Northgate market, I simply tapped back to the main menu and clicked on Northgate market. Magically I appeared in the Northgate store without even moving from my bed! I ordered beans, local tortillas, marinated meats, and I ordered a ton of Monster Energy drinks. I ordered Monster energy drinks, because Northgate is having a sale on them for 52 cents, which is far cheaper than the stores around me at $1.99 each and I drink them on a daily basis. So not only did I get my local ethnic foods, but I also got a great price on energy drinks. Fresh coconuts were also on sale and if you like coconut water, there’s nothing better than an actual young coconut.
After about 30 minutes of shopping through the categories of interest and picking out what I needed, I placed my order through the Prime Now app and scheduled a delivery time from 10am-12pm the next morning. I placed two orders, one for Sprouts and one for Northgate market.
A tip was also suggested for my drivers, and Amazon suggested $5 which worked out to be $10 since there were two delivers. I’ve read reviews on the Google Play store and the Amazon Underground app store, and many people complain about having to pay for a tip. Amazon doesn’t force you to add a tip, so don’t tip if you don’t want to tip. In my case, I don’t mind tipping because these drivers work hard and are providing a service for you. They aren’t UPS or FedEx drivers, they are local employees who have their own needs as well. The drive alone to and from Northgate market would have cost me ten dollars in gasoline(CA residents pay a lot for gas and I have a truck), but more importantly the Prime Now service saved me a whole three hours of shopping. Sometimes the complaining about paying for convenience really gets annoying.
Summary
My fresh produce, bread, and other items all arrived in fantastic condition. As soon as the first order arrived, I opened up a young coconut and enjoyed my juice while browsing the web. Both of my drivers were highly professional and friendly. They brought all 15 of my bags to my doorstep, and the cold items arrived cold and intact. We even chatted about what other items the stores will be offering within the next three months too. I hope to see both of them again in the near future.
Prime Now is a free service as long as you’re a member of Amazon Prime which costs $99 per year. Amazon Prime offers free two-day shipping on most items bought from Amazon.com on top of free movies, TV shows, music and now free local same day delivery from some of your favorite merchants.
If you have Amazon Prime already, check to see if Prime Now is available in your area by downloading the app at the Google Play store. If you have an Amazon device like a Kindle Fire you can click here to access the Prime now app through the Underground app store.
If you have yet to give Amazon Prime a shot, you can try it free for 30-days with no strings attached, and you will have the same access to all benefits that paying members have. If you don’t like grocery shopping, don’t like waiting in lines, Prime Now is definitely worth trying out as you might find it adds more time back into your life, for no additional cost. In my case it saved me several hours of shopping and driving, savings on gas and wear and tear on my truck. I now look forward to grocery shopping while I am sitting on the couch, lying in bed, hanging out at the dog park or doing cardio at the gym.
I have to try those Sprinkles cupcakes and give Bristol Farms a try next. I even was invited to a get together tonight where my friend has a toddler. I think I will order a little gift from Amazon.com and have it delivered within two hours before I head over to their house.
Give Prime Now a try. It’s worth it.
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