LA wine store partners with Amazon Prime

Californian wine store Mission Wines and Spirits has teamed up with Amazon Prime Now to launch a fast, one-hour delivery service.

The wine retailer, which operates four stores in California, is offering the service out of its Glendale store in Los Angeles seven days a week, for $7.99, with a free two-hour delivery option.

The online retail giant first announced it was rolling out a one-hour delivery in the USA on beer, wine and spirits through Prime Now in August 2015, with the service starting in Seattle before extending to New York a few months later. It has since extended to other cities around the US, including Wine & Spirit in Manhattan, and Plum Market in Baltimore.

Speaking to the Pasadena Star, Amazon spokesman Amanda Ip said it was a very popular product “among consumers who want to get something in a hurry”

“A lot of people have their favourite stores where they love to shop so this expands our product selection,” she told the paper. “And local stores get to leverage our high-end technology and expertise. Getting the infrastructure together to offer delivery service like this would be both costly and time-consuming for them.”

Mission Wine’s general manager, Joe Elmazian, told the paper the company had been planning the delivery service for over a year, and had gone through a training process with the online retail giant.

“Orders come in through mobile phones and we pack them up. Then a driver comes to pick it up and deliver them within that two- or one-hour window,” he said.