Back in October, Amazon’s Prime Now delivery service expanded to Jersey City. As a Prime member, I had been meaning to give it a try, but never got around to it.
As we wait for Whole Foods Jersey City to come to fruition — and with the WTC PATH shutdown on weekends — I now have a legit reason to check out Prime Now. Here’s my quick take on the service.
What Is Prime Now?
Prime Now is Amazon’s “free” 2-hour delivery service exclusively available to Prime members. The word free is in quotations because you must be a Prime member ($119/year) to use Prime Now and your orders must be $35 or more to qualify for that free 2-hour shipping. If you’re in a pinch and need 1-hour delivery, you’ll have to pay $7.99.
Amazon is supposed to deliver thousands of items to your doorstep, but here in Jersey City Prime Now is only making Whole Foods deliveries. Deliveries are made during the hours of 8am to 10pm and you get to schedule your delivery during checkout.
Availability
Prime Now will deliver many Whole Foods items to your home including seafood, meat, pet food, dairy, cheese, and produce.
However, when it comes to variety — FreshDirect beats it hands down as Prime Now doesn’t give you access to everything sold at Whole Foods stores. Pies and cakes, for example, aren’t available for purchase on the website.
Amazon also limits the amount of items you can buy. For example, at the time of this writing I could only order 2 trays of Whole Paws pet food.
Likewise, some pre-packaged items — like these pomegranate seeds — are only sold by the pound. So instead of buying one small container, you have no choice but to buy a full pound.
On the positive side, I like that you can order their sushi online. (However, you can’t get food from the Whole Foods hot/cold buffet).
Price
One of the main reasons I decided to write this review is because I noticed that some Whole Foods items were slightly cheaper on Prime Now than they they were in-store. I’m not sure if they were price errors or sales specific to the Whole Foods in Newark (which is where my order came from), but here are a few examples:
- Atlantic Salmon: $9.99/lb (online); $10.99/lb (in-store)
- Kale: $1.49/bunch (online); $3.49/bunch (in-store)
- Halibut fillet: $17.99/lb. (online); $19.99/lb. (in-store)
I want to point out that the halibut was on sale in-store and online at the time of this writing, but it was actually cheaper online. I don’t think I’ve ever seen $17.99/lb. halibut anywhere, so I ordered it, but noticed Amazon charged me $19.99/lb. I reached out to customer service and they instantly gave me a $10 credit toward my next Prime Now order.
On a side note, if you’re a first-time Prime Now shopper, always look for a coupon as Amazon usually has one available. (Currently, you can use “SAVE10WF” to save $10 on your first order).
Speed
Prime Now’s motto is, “Whoa. That was fast.” I agree — my order arrived in under 2 hours. If you live in a walk-up, you can have Amazon call you when your order arrives and they will bring it to your door. If you live in a doorman building, you can leave instructions to have your order left with your concierge.
My Whole Foods order came from the Newark Whole Foods. (Not sure why they didn’t deliver from the Edgewater location, which I thought would be quicker).
Overall
Prime Now is a no brainer if you’re a Prime member. Yes, I’ll continue to shop at P&K (I’ve been going there since I was a kid) and Oliva is slowly winning me over, but there are times I can’t make it to either. Likewise, there are times I don’t feel like schlepping grocery bags from New York on the Path. On those occasions, Prime Now fills a nice gap.
