Amazon already delivers groceries. Now, the Seattle giant is quietly moving into the takeout business.
Amazon is launching a food takeout service as part of Amazon Local beginning in Seattle and will compete with companies like GrubHub and DeliveryHero.
A source told GeekWire that the new service was available in the Amazon Local iPhone app earlier this week, but was disabled Wednesday due to a bug.
Today’s news follows reports from earlier this month that Amazon is prepping to compete with the likes of Yelp and Angie’s List with a local marketplace platform to help people find restaurants and other services like babysitters, handymen or contractors.
Amazon has been delivering groceries via Amazon Fresh for more than five years and finally introduced the grocery delivery business to Los Angeles and San Francisco in 2013. TechCrunch notes that the new food delivery service may follow a similarly slow rollout.
We’ve reached out to Amazon for more details on the takeout service, and will update this story when we hear back.
It’s unclear what types of restaurants Amazon will partner with, but it certainly will face competition in the Seattle market. Delivery services like Postmates, Caviar and Eat24 already bring food to doorsteps, so it will be interesting to see how Amazon tries to differentiate with its program — drones, perhaps?
