U.S. Mail Delivers Amazon Groceries in San Francisco
USPS Is Aggressively Chasing Bigger Piece of E-Commerce Pie
An Amazon Fresh delivery truck in downtown Los
Angeles. Amazon also is using the U.S. Postal Service for a grocery-delivery
experiment in San Francisco. REUTERS
Amazon.com Inc. and the U.S. Postal Service,
already partners in Sunday deliveries, have launched a trial to shuttle
insulated containers of meat, dairy, produce and other groceries to San
Francisco customers' doorsteps. The test could presage a broader national
rollout, giving Amazon's grocery drop-off service a much wider reach.
Through its AmazonFresh unit, the e-commerce
giant today delivers groceries in its hometown Seattle, as well as Los
Angeles and San Francisco. It is expected to introduce Fresh to additional
markets in the coming months: Amazon lists job openings for produce-handlers in
Avenel, N.J., about 25 miles outside Manhattan.
If successful, the two-month test could
provide a boost to the Postal Service, which has aggressively chased a bigger piece of the e-commerce pie as the Internet chips
away at other parts of its business. Its package business is up 20% over the
past five years to 3.7 billion packages.
The Postal Service said it is testing
AmazonFresh deliveries "to determine if delivering groceries to
residential and business addresses would be feasible from an operations
standpoint and could be financially beneficial for the organization."
A spokeswoman said the USPS is making the
drop-offs between 3 a.m. and 7 a.m.; few of its trucks are in use at those
hours. Because Amazon uses insulated tote bags for perishable groceries, the
agency can make deliveries without the benefit of refrigerated trucks.
An Amazon spokeswoman said, "We are
always looking for new and innovative ways to deliver packages to
customers."
AmazonFresh offers more than 500,000 items,
from groceries to books, videogames and paper towels, to be delivered at scheduled
times or during three-hour blocks. Deliveries usually cost between $7.99 and
$9.99, but are free for orders of $100 or more. A $299-per-year membership
lowers the free-delivery threshold to $35 and includes unlimited shipping of
Amazon.com goods.
Amazon has been leaning on the Postal Service
for more of its regular deliveries, dropping off packages at local post offices
for letter carriers to deliver to the door. The USPS also has an exclusive contract with Amazon for Sunday shipping in about two dozen
U.S. cities, a service expected to expand to new markets in the coming months.
The 60-day grocery-delivery test started in
early August, according to the Postal Service, and is limited to the San
Francisco area.
In an interview in April, Postmaster General
Patrick R. Donahoe said the agency would like a piece of the grocery business.
"We work with Amazon. They're an
excellent, excellent customer and an excellent partner. We'd like to deliver
their groceries," Mr. Donahoe said. "As the Postal Service, we visit
every house, every day. Why not?"
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