Amazon bringing same-day delivery to ‘millions’ of rural customers

Amazon announced its intention to bring same-day and next-day delivery to “tens of millions” of people who live in live in smaller towns by the end of 2026. Speedier deliveries will be available to residents “in more than 4,000 smaller cities, towns, and rural communities,” the company said in a press release Tuesday.

Items categorized as “everyday essentials,” including groceries, beauty products, household goods, or pet food, will now be available to small town or rural customers for same-day or next-day delivery. If they are Prime subscribers (currently $14.99 a month or $139 annually), they get unlimited free same-day delivery when spending over $25 at checkout.

Amazon has already expanded its speedy delivery options to customers in over 1,000 small or rural communities, and people are buying these essential items at a higher rate than before. Amazon says over 90 percent of the top 50 items purchased for same-day delivery are “everyday essentials items.”

The company was able to accomplish this massive expansion by spending a lot of money — $4 billion, according to Amazon — on building new facilities and hiring new delivery drivers. Its also transforming existing delivery hubs in these smaller communities into hybrid facilities where Amazon packages can be prepped for final delivery.

And the company is using machine learning to better predict what items each communities buys in large quantities, so it can make sure to have those items in stock for faster delivery. This includes “the most-popular and frequently purchased items like wireless headphones, coffee pods, crackers, paper towels, and diapers, and products curated to fit local preferences like wild bird food in Dubuque, Iowa, travel backpacks in Findlay, Ohio, and after sun body butter in Sharptown, Maryland,” Amazon says.

While many residents of small towns may delight in faster Amazon deliveries, local business owners may have a different reaction. Amazon has long been a threat to local Mom-and-Pop shops that struggle to compete with the convenience of online shopping, while also laboring under high rents and other costs of doing business. Amazon argues that it provides opportunities for small businesses to reach new customers, but critics claim that the company exploits its dominance in the economy to squeeze out local entrepreneurs.