More than 20 years after two-day shipping became the e-commerce baseline, Amazon is opening CVS-sized micro-warehouses across dozens of U.S. cities to deliver orders in 30 minutes or less. The service, called Amazon Now, launches this week in Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Atlanta, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and other markets, with New York City expected by year-end.
Amazon Now first launched in India last June and has since expanded to urban areas of Brazil, Mexico, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. The U.S.
rollout began with tests in Seattle and Philadelphia. The mini-warehouses run about 5,000 to 10,000 square feet and stock roughly 3,500 products: beer, diapers, pet food, meat, nonprescription medications, playing cards, and phone charging cables. Unlike Amazon's sprawling fulfillment centers with miles of robotic shelving, each hub employs only a handful of workers pulling items from aisles.
"We know that customers love speed and always have," Beryl Tomay, Amazon's head of transportation, told the Associated Press. "What we see customers doing, when we offer faster speeds, are they purchase more from Amazon."
Pricing starts at $3.99 for Prime members (who pay $139 annually) and $13.99 for non-members. A $1.99 small basket fee applies to orders under $15. The play is distinctly Amazon: use supply chain muscle where pandemic-era 10-minute delivery startups collapsed under operating costs and low loyalty, according to Forrester analyst Sucharita Kodali. Independent retail analyst Bruce Winder said Amazon's advantage is its logistics prowess, putting direct pressure on Instacart, Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub.
DoorDash pushed back, with spokesperson Ali Musa saying the company's model empowers grocers rather than replacing them. Walmart also competes head-to-head: its Express Delivery service guarantees 100,000-plus products within an hour for an extra $10, and CEO John Furner told analysts in February that many orders arrive in under 30 minutes.
Amazon is deliberately avoiding the mistakes of Domino's 1984 "30 minutes or it's free" guarantee, which was scrapped in 1993 after crashes and lawsuits. Tomay said Amazon won't make any time guarantees, instead keeping customers updated on order progress.
"There's no rushing either in our building workers or the gig workers," she said.
Gartner analyst Brad Jashinsky said the Domino's history should serve as a cautionary tale. "You get in trouble when you start overpromising something like that."
Amazon uses AI to tailor each hub's inventory to local buying patterns. The most popular U.S.
purchases so far include soap, toothpaste, mouthwash, toilet plungers, bananas, limes, and wireless earbuds.
Early data from India shows Prime members tripled their 30-minute delivery requests after their first use. Tomay said the service is also drawing repeat American customers, though she acknowledged it remains early.
"I think that it will be interesting to see how it evolves."
