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Whole Foods Two-Hour Delivery Is Coming To Austin Via Amazon

Spencer Selvidge
/
KUT

Amazon giveth and Amazon taketh away.

The Seattle-based tech giant bought Austin-based Whole Foods in August. Since that acquisition, Amazon has cut prices on bananas, yogurt and other items at the organic grocer, and began selling Kindle e-readers in some of its 470 stores.

Now, it's rolling out something new for Whole Foods patrons: two-hour delivery.

The catch is you have to pay for Amazon’s $99-a-year Prime membership to get your favorite hummus, kombucha or pre-peeled oranges to your door. Shoppers will be able to order meat, seafood and other grocery items through Amazon’s Prime Now app and website.

Deliveries will start Thursday in Austin and Dallas (coincidence?), Cincinnati and Virginia Beach, Va. Amazon says the service will be nationwide this year.

There's no extra fee for two-hour deliveries above $35, but one-hour delivery will cost $8, the company says.

Since Amazon bought Whole Foods last year, rival grocers have been working to increase delivery. Target, for example, bought grocery-delivery company Shipt. Others have partnered with Instacart.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Molly Evans is the Assistant Producer of Digital News at KERA. She writes, edits and curates news content on KERANews.org. She also maintains the Twitter feed for KERA News. Molly previously served as Digital Coordinator, maintaining KERA’s websites and various digital platforms as well as designing graphics, participating in digital projects and site builds and offering technical assistance to the staff. She has worked at KERA since January 2015. Before KERA, Molly interned with This Land Press in Tulsa, TulsaPeople magazine World Literature Today in Norman and the Oklahoma Gazette in Oklahoma City, where she also freelanced. She also wrote and edited for The Oklahoma Daily, the award-winning student newspaper at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Molly graduated from OU with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in Spanish in December 2014. She was awarded Outstanding Senior in Journalism from the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication. Molly is a native of Tulsa, Okla.
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