Amazon Soon To Be Launching Local Takeout Food Service To Rival Seamless
Image via Flickr/ Mykl Roventine
Word of Amazon’s newest and latest venture has hit the street: a local takeout service — one that would eventually rival the likes of competitors like Seamless and GrubHub.
The service, which is still very under wraps, will initially go live as part of Amazon Local, the company’s daily deal and discounts site. Amazon first planned on rolling out the new program in Seattle and on iOS and even quietly launched the app Thursday night before taking it back down. The app is expected to be live again soon, TechCrunch reports.
The company has been pretty mum about the details of the new local takeout service, but one anonymous source close to the company told TechCrunch that it would be a “VERY gradual expansion unless things go gangbusters.” If Amazon follows the company’s own suit of taking its time to launch new initiatives, like it did with Amazon Fresh (which is still only available in Seattle and Southern and Northern California), it will be a while before Seamless has to up its game.
Additionally, there is speculation that Amazon may acquire some smaller companies along the way to really make a big bang before launching the local takeout food service. Amazon acquired mobile payments app Gopago last December, so it wouldn’t be the first time. The idea seems to be that Amazon is trying to get out of the solitary confines of Internet retail and get down and dirty with the local commerce players.
Until Amazon officially rolls out its new local takeout service, though, we’ll order some Seamless and take advantage of our Prime accounts to buy things that we don’t need.
