Amazon has been expanding its offerings lately, and now it looks like the company is adding another new service to the mix. Recent reports indicate that Amazon is experimenting with takeout delivery of hot food items.
Amazon is known as a company that is ever expanding its options and services. The company has been especially aggressive when it comes to offering new food and drink delivery services. In addition to its Amazon pantry offerings and fresh grocery deliveries, the company has recently started testing alcohol delivery. Now, a new report indicates that the company is also experimenting with delivery of restaurant takeout.
Amazon began offering its Prime Now same-day delivery service earlier this year in select areas of New York City. The Prime Now delivery options offer a two-hour window for free, or a rush service that promises to deliver customer's orders within one hour for an extra $7.99 charge.
Amazon recently expanded its Prime Now service to the Seattle area, where it has built a large new distribution facility. Amazon is now reportedly getting into hot food delivery, testing the service by quietly offering it only to employees of the Seattle facility.
Prime Now drivers are the same Amazon employees tasked with food delivery duties, and a sign has been observed in Amazon's new Prime Now distribution center in Kirkland, right outside Seattle, where the company is headquartered.
Amazon already allows customers in Seattle to order food delivery using the Amazon Local app, but the pickups and deliveries are made by third parties rather than Amazon employees. The service works more like Seamless — acting as a middleman between the customer and the restaurant, whose delivery services are carried out by its own employees.
In May, Amazon also began offering one- and two-hour food delivery in select New York neighborhoods via Prime Now from two gourmet groceries, D'Agostino and Gourmet, and a baked goods store, Billy's Bakery — but not from actual restaurants serving hot meals to order.
