Amazon triggers nuclear option: Free grocery delivery for Prime members

Groceries. Delivered free. Within 2 hours... That insanely convenient offering is now real for Amazon Prime members in America's top 20 cities (it's coming to 2K cities total, but not necessarily within 2 hours). Pulling that off is so logistically hard that only existing Amazon Fresh customers get it right now — 1st-timers will hit a waitlist so Amazon can assess how many grocery-dashing humans it needs to hire (spoiler alert: lots).

Will this finally make grocery delivery a thing?... Most Americans still grocery shop the ol'-fashioned way — by grabbing a shopping cart and blocking the aisle while squish-testing avocado firmness. Amazon's new offering eliminates 2 of the 3 big barriers to grocery delivery:

• The cost barrier: Grocery delivery today features fees (Amazon's used to be $15/month on top of Prime). Plus tips.
• The planning barrier: You typically need to know your fridge's shelf status at least 6 hours in advance. That's cut to 2 hours with Amazon's new offering.
• The freshness barrier: Some of us undoubtedly still want to harvest our own produce and not risk someone grabbing the wrong almond milk.