Amazon Prime Now Announces Expansion To Atlanta: Products Delivered In Two Hours Or Less

Amazon Prime users sometimes cite the free two-day delivery option as one of the most useful Prime features. Now, some Prime members in Atlanta may have an even shorter wait time for their ordered products.

On Thursday, Amazon announced that the company will offer Prime Now for members in certain Atlanta zip codes. The service provides a free two-hour delivery service, and for $7.99, Prime Now users can receive their deliveries in just an hour. Atlanta joins a growing list of cities where the service is available: Miami, Dallas, New York City, and Baltimore.

In order to take advantage of the two-hour delivery service, Amazon Prime subscribers must download the Prime Now app, which is available for both iOS and Android phones. When an order is been placed, the Prime Now app gives users a two-hour time frame of when the product will be delivered. With 25,000 products available, the app has a much smaller inventory of products to choose from than the traditional Amazon website, which makes mention of 20 million products available for two-day shipping.

“Customers love the convenience of one-hour delivery and we are excited to bring Prime Now to Atlanta,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said in a press release. “This new benefit for Prime members in Atlanta is fueled by our growing operations and we are excited to continue expanding Prime Now to additional cities this year.”

For Atlanta residents, the Prime Now service will be available from 8 a.m. until midnight seven days per week. The service is currently available in 22 zip codes across the city.

Though the service is promoted as free to Prime Now users, that isn’t exactly the case. Users are expected to tip the delivery driver, and $5 is the expected minimum.

According to CNET Magazine, the move to expand Prime Now to the Atlanta market is just the most recent in a strategy for the online super-giant to compete with local brick-and-mortar stores. In addition to offering the two-hour delivery option, in some markets Amazon also provides users with same-day delivery on groceries and many other household products.

For a yearly fee of $99, Amazon Prime users across the country are able to take advantage of benefits outside of the Prime Now program, which include a Kindle lending library with more than 800,000 books, unlimited TV and movie streaming, music streaming, and as mentioned, free two-day shipping on many products.

Does the service sound like one you’d like to use if and when it hits your city? If so, current Prime subscribers can download the app and be notified when Amazon Prime Now become available in your area.

[Photo by Kvork Djansezian/Getty Images]