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Amazon really,reallywants Prime Members to use its Amazon Fresh delivery service. So it's getting rid of the steep $14.99/month fee for Prime members, and it's adding groceries from your local Whole Foods.

Amazon Fresh is Amazon's answer to grocery services like Instacart, offering home delivery or pickup for folks who, understandably, don't want to wait 30 minutes at one of two open checkout lanes in a physical supermarket.

Besides getting rid of that monthly fee, Amazon also announced an expansion of Amazon Fresh delivery, making it available in "more than 2,000 cities and towns" with more to come. These locales are all based around nearly two dozen major metropolitan areas, including New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

What's more, Amazon added one- and two-hour delivery options in "most" Amazon Fresh cities and made local Whole Foods inventories available online via Amazon.com and the Amazon app.

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Previously, shoppers could pick same-day or next-day delivery. And while Amazon Fresh previously carried some offerings from Whole Foods' 365 brand, this is the first time it has made shopping from your local Whole Foods available via the service.

Why the big move now? Well, competition, of course. TechCrunch notes Amazon's big play comes after major grocery delivery expansion announcements from Walmart and Target, the two big chain stores large enough to directly challenge Amazon's empire.

If you're already an Amazon Fresh subscriber, congrats! You're good to go. But if you're an Amazon Prime member who hasn't started using Fresh yet, you'll need to sign up for an "invite" and wait for the request to be processed before you can start getting all those $8 gluten-free cupcakes delivered.

SEE ALSO:How to recycle all of your Amazon packaging

Because nothing is ever truly free, you'll need to meet a certain threshold for your order to meet the two-hour delivery window. Most regions have a $35 threshold but others are more expensive; Vox says the threshold for New York City is $55.

If you're not sure if you're in one of Amazon's Fresh delivery cities, you can go here to find out (sorry, Cleveland.)

TopicsAmazon

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