Amazon Fresh home grocery delivery: does it offer good value for money?

Amazon has ramped up its rivalry with the UK's biggest supermarkets by rolling out free delivery for online grocery orders through its Amazon Fresh service.

Prime customers used have to pay around £4 to book a two-hour same-day or next-day delivery slot, but this fee has been waived provided your order is over £40.

It's worth stressing the offer is currently only available in London and parts of the Home Counties, but the online giant says millions more shoppers will be able to take advantage by the end of the year.

New Amazon Fresh delivery charges

Given that traditional online supermarket deliveries from the likes of Tesco, Morrisons and Asda can cost as much as £8 a go (admittedly for a one-hour slot), this represents a massive opportunity to slash your grocery costs, especially if you're already a happy Amazon Prime customer. 

But how do its actual food and drink prices compare? Are they simply bulking up prices on items to cover delivery costs, or are they genuinely cheaper than the other supermarkets overall?

We've crunched the numbers to see how much a typical online shop at Amazon Fresh compares to Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose.

How the comparison was calculated

We excluded Aldi & Lidl due to their limited online shopping services. 

We looked at branded products for ease of comparison – when one wasn't available (for example garlic baguettes), we looked at the cheapest like-for-like product available.

In some cases where the specific product was not available, we used a similar branded product or, in the case of Heinz beans (for Tesco), added up the value of four individual cans. It's not precise, but it does provide a rough idea. 

Prices were accurate as of 30/07/2020.

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Cheapest online supermarket

When we compared the prices of everything on our list, Amazon Fresh was the cheapest at £52.67 while Waitrose was by far the most expensive at £67.80.

This looks solely at the cost of items and excludes any delivery costs to give you an idea of the value for money on offer at each shop.

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What about delivery costs?

If you've ever done an online shop you'll know delivery costs vary wildly depending on when you want delivery and also how you want to pay (for example one-off or an unlimited monthly subscription).

As a result, we've included two delivery costs below: the first is the absolute minimum you could pay provided you're willing to jump through hoops and meet all the small print requirements.

The second is the absolute maximum you could conceivably be charged for a delivery (in most cases this involves signing up for a monthly service and only getting a single delivery).

*An additional charge will apply on orders under £40

**You'll get charged £7 for standard delivery for orders under £40. It’s worth noting you could also get charged up to £7 for delivery for orders over £40.

After Amazon, Sainsbury’s offers the cheapest one-off delivery slot.

While Waitrose does offer 'free' delivery, you have to spend a minimum of £60 to place an order, so there's an important caveat there.

As we've already covered earlier, Amazon's free delivery is only available on orders over £40 and only available to Prime customers, so there's also fine print to be aware of there.

If you aren't an Amazon customer, don't qualify for the free one-month subscription and want a one-hour delivery slot charge (you're charged £4 for one-hour slots), Amazon Fresh is actually by far the most expensive in a worst-case scenario.

Of course, you can avoid additional fees by making an order above £40 and getting a two-hour slot, but we wanted to stress the highest amount you could possibly be charged.

It's worth pointing out you could save with any of the above supermarkets by buying a six-month or even an annual delivery pass (or Amazon Prime membership).

Online deliveries during the pandemic

If you're a regular online shopper, you'll no doubt be aware how difficult it is to book a slot online these days. Excess demand and staff shortages have made this an extremely unusual time.

For example, the type of delivery pass on offer varies and some supermarkets have even temporarily suspended the sale of these passes due to high demand.

Asda and Sainsbury’s don’t sell delivery passes at the time of writing, while Tesco is restricting how many it is selling.

It’s also worth flagging that delivery prices can vary hugely. If you got a delivery on Monday to Wednesday, it would usually be cheaper than a weekend slot.

That said, most of the price comparisons we've made hold up to scrutiny.

The table below shows the total bill when we added the minimum and maximum delivery charges we could find to the overall food bill of each grocer.

Your actual experience will almost certainly sit somewhere in between.

In this scenario, Amazon Fresh is still the cheapest if you don’t factor in the subscription fee and don't want a one-hour order. So, for example if you are a Prime customer or apply for a free 30-day trial and opt for a two-hour slot, you won’t pay this fee.

But if you do factor in the subscription fee and opt for a one-hour delivery slot instead of a two-hour one, it can actually be one of the most expensive grocers.

It’s slightly cheaper than Waitrose (which offers free delivery over £60) and Tesco – if you have a monthly delivery pass. With the latter, you can pick a cheap delivery slot to cut costs.

Cheapest supermarket home deliveries: costs at Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Iceland compared

Is Amazon Fresh worth it?

If you tend to buy branded products and already have an Amazon Prime membership, it’s certainly worth considering although the service is currently only limited to London and the South East, according to reports. 

But if you want a one-hour delivery slot or if your order is under £40, you will be hit with high one-off fees that could quickly push the price of your weekly shop up.

It’s also worth flagging that during our research, there were no multibuy deals available (although there could be deals available on other products).

While this may not be a deal breaker for most people, if you’re feeding a large family, these deals could be helpful.

It’s also worth considering whether you’re happy with your current supermarket – do you have a reliable service and if you have a delivery pass, are you getting good value for money?

If you’re struggling to get hold of a delivery slot, Amazon Fresh may be able to help although it is receiving high demand at the time of writing.

Interested in seeing how we calculated the food bill? Check out the below for a more detailed comparison.

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How did we calculate the food bill?

We created a typical weekly shop that includes many essentials such as bread, eggs and milk and split it into fresh produce, cupboard/household goods and frozen food.

If a price is marked with an asterisk, a similar product has been used as the original item was unavailable.

While Amazon Fresh was the cheapest according to our analysis, you will find some multibuy deals elsewhere, which are marked in italics.

Unfortunately, the pandemic has led to a crackdown on multibuy deals, so there are less than we expected.

Below shows the individual breakdown for the products at each grocer.

Fresh produce

*Item not available, closest comparative product

Cupboard/household goods

*Item not available, closest comparative product

**Type of Radox handwash varies due to availability, cheapest selected

Frozen food

*Item not available, closest comparative product