Amazon customers enjoy the best of both worlds when it comes to grocery shopping. They can buy products from Amazon fresh as well as Whole foods and get them delivered right to their doorsteps. But ever since Amazon acquired whole foods and started its own grocery delivery service, there seems to be some confusion among the consumers about which service is cheaper and better for them? Let’s take a look.
When we compare a list of normal day to day grocery shopping, Amazon Fresh turns out to be slightly cheaper than whole foods. But you also have to factor in the prime subscription cost and the minimum order amount from both of these places into the final cost.
Is Amazon Fresh Cheaper Than Whole Foods?
Amazon Fresh is cheaper than Whole Foods as they target completely different markets. Whole Foods offers higher quality, organic items while Amazon Fresh has products in all price ranges. You can find many of the same name-brand items at Amazon Fresh that you’d find in regular chain grocery stores.
If you want to learn more about Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods, keep reading….
What Is Amazon Fresh?
Amazon Fresh is a service being offered by, you guessed it, Amazon which lets you order groceries through the app and get it delivered right to your doorsteps.
The service is targeted towards consumers who are looking to save time on grocery shopping. The service is only available in some selected cities to Amazon Prime users.
Currently, if you are just an Amazon Prime member, you don’t get access to the service, you have to request or receive an invitation to join it to be able to use it.
Once you are a eligible to use the service, you can have access to a two hour delivery window which is quite lucrative if you think about it.
You will also have a pickup option which can come handy if you are anyways headed to that part of the time.
Pros Of Amazon Fresh
From the outset, you have a wide range of products to choose from. No matter the price point you are looking for, there is a high chance that you will find a product within it.
As of this moment, there are over 500,000 products to choose from. This is much more than what you can get through a normal grocery store. You won’t have to settle for another brand if you shop through Amazon Fresh.
You also have access to seasonal, local and organic products from your locality. This is a huge plus as you don’t have to settle with large mainstream brands only.
On top of this you don’t have to pay for the service as long as you are subscribed to Amazon Prime. You will also have access to doorstep delivery and pickup options, this gives you flexibility throughout the day. The best thing about this service is that you can shop directly from your smartphone.
Cons Of Amazon Fresh
But just like with any other service, there are cons to Amazon Fresh as well. Although I don’t think these cons are anything major to worry about, they should still be pointed out.
First things first, it a double-edged sword that you have to subscribe to Amazon prime to be able use this service. It will cost you either $119 per annum or $12.99 per month. Another charge which can mount up is the delivery cost if your entire order amount is less than $35-$50, depending on the region you are located in.
You will also have to pay a tip of $10 during checkout, although this is option can be removed during payment. Some products might also cost a little bit more than a lot of large chain grocery stores.
Another factor to keep in mind is the amount of packaging you will be receiving. If you are going to be using the service every other day, then your garbage will keep piling up with the excessive packaging used by Amazon Fresh. On top of this, most of the packaging used isn’t recyclable.
How Does Amazon Fresh Compare To Prime Pantry?
Prime pantry is another service being offered by Amazon and I have seen people being confused between Amazon Fresh and Prime Pantry a lot. I get it, both of them have overlapping products and both of them are included with your prime subscription but there are a lot of differences between the two.
The biggest difference is that Prime Pantry does not deliver perishable goods. This means that you cannot order day to day grocery items through this service. It also ships through the regular ground shipping which means the products will reach you within a couple of days rather than the same day. You can also buy household items like cleaning supplies through Prime Pantry.
Which Is Cheaper: Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods?
While both of these services are owned by Amazon, they don’t really compete with another because of the different market segments they cater to.
While Amazon Fresh is for anyone looking to save time and order a couple of day’s worth of groceries to their house, Whole Foods caters to people who are a bit more health conscious and conscious about the source of their foods.
Whole Foods usually sells higher quality, organic food items which tend to be a bit pricier when compared to normal grocery items. This automatically makes the service a bit more expensive to use.
Although this does not mean that everything will be more expensive in Whole Foods, some items can actually be cheaper. But if you buy an array of grocery items from Whole Foods, the chances are that it will be more expensive than Amazon Fresh. But ofcourse you also have to take into account the Amazon Prime Subscription cost into this which can be $10 per month.
If you buy a loaf of sandwich bread, 20 oz, from Amazon Fresh it will cost you $2.98 while if you buy it from Whole Foods, it will cost you $3.49. The same goes for extra virgin olive oil and coffee. But at the same time, laundry detergent can be cheaper in Whole Foods sometimes.
Click here to learn even more about the Amazon Fresh Vs. Whole Foods debate and also to learn if you can use an Amazon Gift Card at Whole Foods
Conclusion..
Both Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh are great services to choose from. However, if you want to save money, Amazon Fresh is significantly cheaper than Whole Foods.