Whole Foods' Latest Amazon Prime Perk: Free 1-Hour Grocery Pickups

Whole Foods, the grocery store chain acquired by Amazon, has introduced yet another benefit for Amazon Prime subscribers, one that competes with Walmart and its own grocery pickup offering. As of now, Amazon Prime customers can place their grocery order online as usual, but then pick it up in person from the store in a single hour without any extra charge.

Whole Foods stores are located around the United States and they've undergone some notable changes since Amazon took over, including the arrival of Amazon-branded products in the shops and a decrease in the retailer's notoriously high prices. As expected, Amazon Prime customers were given some perks over everyone else.

The latest perk comes in the form of free one-hour grocery pickups across the US — assuming you have a Prime membership, of course. The goods can be ordered through the Amazon app or website through the Whole Foods Market section; users must order a total of $35 or more worth of groceries and choose one-hour pickup as the way they wish to get their groceries.

Grocery pickups have become very popular in the past several months due to the pandemic and the related need to socially distance oneself from others. While grocery pickup is an increasingly available option for many people, these delivery services often charge a fee and may take longer compared to pickups, which are often free unless the person wants their groceries in a rush.

Walmart rolled out its own grocery pickup service at a mass scale this year to meet the new spike in consumer demand for such options. Amazon's new Whole Foods perk for Prime members competes with this by offering the groceries in only a little longer than it would take the customers to shop at the store themselves.