Need food delivered in 1 hour? Try Amazon

IT’S dinnertime, the fridge is empty and you can’t face a trip to the shops – so what do you do?

You might think a takeaway is your only option, but Amazon has other ideas.

While the big supermarkets and online rival Ocado might deliver groceries tomorrow, Amazon is upping the ante by offering fresh, chilled foods on your doorstep in one hour.

The retailer began a trial in Birmingham yesterday and there will be more test runs in London before introducing the Amazon Fresh service – which already operates in the US – across the UK. Initially, customers in Birmingham will be offered one-hour delivery of 50 chilled lines as the company assesses whether it has the technology and drivers to ensure reliability.

The website will be a marketplace for small specialist food firms, as well as Amazon’s own fresh produce and items including lowfat butter, Cathedral City cheddar, Chicago Town pizzas, Ben & Jerry ice creams and Bird’s Eye fish fingers. Hundreds more products will be added to the service in the coming months.

Supermarkets have found it difficult to make money from online shopping because of the high cost of running a delivery operation. As a result, they have had to increase charges and the minimum spend required.

Amazon plans to offer a free same-day service to customers paying an annual subscription. The Birmingham launch comes under Amazon Prime Now, which costs £79 a year and offers delivery on thousands of items plus film, TV and music streaming. Customers must spend at least £20, and a fee of £6.99 for one-hour delivery – or no extra charge for a same- day delivery.

Amazon Fresh is due for a UK-wide launch in February or March, a source close to the project told Retail Week. It is thought the subscription may be around £130 a year.

Amazon said: ‘Prime Now customers already benefit from ultra-fast delivery … We are excited to be adding a range of chilled and frozen items to this selection.’