Amazon takes on UK supermarkets with ‘Pantry’ offer

SEATTLE:

Online retailer Amazon has stepped up the pressure on Britain’s traditional supermarkets with the nationwide launch on Friday of a packaged groceries offer for Amazon Prime members. The move is the ecommerce giant’s most ambitious foray into Britain’s growing online grocery market but stops short of replicating its broader US Amazon Fresh service, which offers about 20,000 chilled, frozen and perishable products and items from local shops.

The new ‘Amazon Pantry’ service offers Amazon Prime members, who pay an annual fee of 79 pounds , the choice of more than 4,000 “everyday essentials, in everyday sizes”, including major brands of food and drink, household supplies, baby, child and pet care, health and beauty.

Members can fill up as much of a 20 kg Amazon Pantry box as they wish for one-day delivery, with a 2.99-pound fee for the first box and 99 pence for each additional box in the same order.