Amazon Prime Now: Whole Foods Grocery Delivery–a Review

Amazon Prime delivers Whole Foods groceries to your front door in many major cities. We love grocery delivery services, so put in an order to try it out.

• (You need Amazon Prime to use this service. If you are not a member, you can sign up here for a free 30 day trial. There is discounted Prime membership if you have a Medicaid or EBT card here. Students also get cheap Prime and a free 6 month trial here.)

Ordering is simple. Go to the Prime Now website, make sure your zip code is correct (upper left corner), and then search for grocery items at Whole Foods. Bulk foods, like oatmeal, are available too, which can save you money.

Click “Add”, and when you are ready, go to Checkout in Prime Now, and choose your delivery address and payment method.

Then choose a grocery delivery time and day. Our Prime Now options included 1 hour delivery windows, with a $4.99 delivery fee, or 2 hour delivery windows with free delivery. (You may have to order $35+ total to get the free delivery option.).

There is an option to add a driver tip. The suggested (optional) tip for our $60 order was $6. If you choose to tip, it is part of your credit card total, no cash is exchanged with the driver. There is also the choice to change your tip after delivery.
 
I choose grocery delivery between 8:00-10:00 am on Sunday. Here is what happened with our Amazon Prime Now order:

• 6:05 am. Get text that my grocery order is being prepared. (This woke us up! Next time, we’ll silence the phone.)
• 6:18 am. Text that Fuji apples are out of stock at Whole Foods, with a link to choose a substitute
• 6:47 am. Get text that my grocery order is ready
• 9:12 am. Text that my Prime Now order will arrive soon. With a cool link that allows me to see the vehicle location.
• 9:16 am. Driver arrives and hands off 5 bags of Whole Foods groceries.
• 9:20 am. Get text that my order has been delivered.

We got five paper bags (all strangely marked “baby”; the driver said every order gets a keyword). They were labeled with Amazon Prime Now, not Whole Foods. Everything was packed well. For instance, frozen items were packed together. Produce was bagged in plastic bags. We were happy with the quality of the produce and expiration dates on the dairy.

Overall, it was a great experience, and we are glad that Amazon Prime and Whole Foods are offering delivery. Just remember that you’ll start getting many texts a couple hours prior to dropoff – silence your phone if you’ll be sleeping or in a meeting.

• *Everything discussed here was ordered with our own money; Amazon and Whole Foods have nothing to do with this post.