Amazon rolling out delivery at Whole Foods

Amazon is bringing its speedy delivery to Whole Foods, injecting a new level of competition into the already-booming food-delivery business — and Margot Good might never visit the organic grocery chain again.

“I can stay in my pajamas at home and have them deliver me my groceries,” she said Thursday after learning about the new service outside a Cincinnati location.

The online retail giant plans to roll out two-hour delivery at Whole Foods this year to those who pay for Amazon’s $99-a-year Prime membership. It is the company’s biggest move since it bought the organic grocer last year.

It’s also precisely the action rivals have been preparing for since the day Amazon — with the Prime program that has been so successful in cementing customer loyalty — announced plans to buy Whole Foods.

Amazon shoppers can order meat, seafood and other Whole Foods grocery items through the Prime Now app and website — the biggest move yet to incorporate the organic grocer into the Seattle retail giant’s e-commerce empire. Deliveries started Thursday in Austin, Texas; Cincinnati; Dallas; and Virginia Beach, Va.; and is set to expand nationwide this year.

Employees will pick items from store shelves, and hand them off to a driver.

“This is where we’re starting,” said Stephenie Landry, vice president of Prime Now. “We’re going to be expanding.”

Prime members also can pay an extra $7.99 to have their orders delivered within an hour.

The grocery delivery business — though an expensive endeavor for retailers — has become a hotly contested space in recent years, as companies compete to relieve shoppers of the one of the few chores many do once a week, if not more: Buy food.