Google announced Wednesday 17 February that it is adding fresh produce, including fruit and vegetables, to its Google Express service which launched in 2013, offering non-perishable goods. The search engine's fresh food home delivery service is starting small and is only available to select areas of San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Google has been testing its food delivery service in San Francisco since last fall, although the move to bring the service to the mainstream was a little surprising. The company believes that it's been able to make deliveries work by effectively making itself a middleman between retailers and consumers. Rather than setting up logistics centers itself, the firm will simply drive a van to a partner supermarket, pick up your stuff and drop it off at your place.
The service will offer same-day delivery of fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, dairy and frozen foods and if the pilot goes well, Google Express will expand the service to other areas.
In San Francisco, perishable goods will come from Costco, Smart & Final and Whole Foods. In Los Angeles, the merchants are Costco, Smart & Final and Vicente Foods.
Deliveries for perishables start at $2.99 for members and $4.99 for non-members. They arrive within a two-hour window, according to Prabhu Balasubramanian, group product manager for Google Express. Google Express is raising the minimum order including fresh groceries to $35 from $15.
With this new venture, Google is entering a highly competitive field that has proven to have a minimal rate of success. The competition includes other same-day grocery delivery services like Amazon Fresh and InstaCart. It’s worth noting that the $95 annual membership fee for Google Express is significantly cheaper than the annual fees for both Amazon’s service and InstaCart, which will run you $299 and $149, respectively. And even though InstaCart delivers orders $35 and above at no cost, Google’s new service might win out thanks to its partnerships with well-known grocers.
