Dive Brief:
- The Save Mart Companies has launched two-hour grocery delivery in California’s Central Valley in partnership with Amazon, the West Coast supermarket chain announced Thursday.
- The company is initially offering the service at stores under its Save Mart banner in Lathrop and Ceres, California, and expects to make it available at additional locations in the region at an unspecified future point.
- Save Mart’s addition of Amazon as an e-commerce provider is the latest in a series of moves by the grocer since it was acquired by private equity firm Kingswood Capital Management.
Dive Insight:
The new service, which requires shoppers to be part of the Amazon Prime membership program, carries a delivery fee that starts at $4.99, according to the announcement. Save Mart, which also provides grocery delivery through Instacart and DoorDash is offering customers who try the new service 15% off an order of at least $50, but did not say when the special will end.
Save Mart described its decision to offer delivery service through Amazon as part of a “digital transition” aimed at helping customers access groceries at affordable prices.
“We are committed to enhancing the personalization of our customers’ shopping experience across all of our stores including Lucky and FoodMaxx,” Save Mart Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer Tamara Pattison said in a statement, referring to the banners the company operates in addition to Save Mart.
Kingswood has moved quickly to make changes since it took over Save Mart from its longtime family owners in March. The grocer said in August that it would close all of its in-store pharmacies and transfer those services to Walgreens. This spring, Save Mart announced plans to expand its private label offerings through the addition of hundreds of new items to existing lines, along with the creation of new ones. Earlier this month, meanwhile, the retailer opened its first small-format location in a 9,549-square-foot space in San Francisco.
Save Mart’s addition of Amazon as a delivery provider follows Cardenas Markets’ announcement in September that it had started offering service in conjunction with the e-commerce giant at several stores in California and Las Vegas.
Amazon also provides delivery service to Bristol Farms, a 14-store grocery chain in California, as well as to pharmacy chain Bartell Drugs and pet products seller All The Best, both of which serve the Seattle area. In addition, Amazon provides grocery delivery from its Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market chains.
