Amazon takes on Tesco and Sainsbury's with fresh food now available for same-day delivery

The online retail giant announced the move at its Delivering the Future event held at its Dartford fulfilment centre on Thursday.

Customers will be able to add fresh items including vegetables, meat, poultry, seafood, dairy products, bread, eggs and frozen food to eligible same-day delivery orders.

The new range will sit alongside the millions of products already available through Amazon's rapid delivery service, including electronics, household goods and other everyday essentials.

The rollout marks a significant expansion of Amazon's grocery offering in the UK as it looks to strengthen its position in the fast-growing online food delivery market.

The move comes amid intensifying competition from established supermarket chains, with services such as Tesco's Whoosh and Sainsbury's Chop Chop offering rapid grocery deliveries to customers across the country.

John Boumphrey, Amazon's UK country manager, said: "We're focused on making grocery shopping easier and faster for customers, with low prices on millions of items."

He added: "Customers can now add fresh groceries to their regular Amazon orders in a single basket and have everything delivered the same day."

Mr Boumphrey explained that shoppers could order fresh ingredients alongside a new cookbook, or milk and tea bags with a new kettle, placing orders in the morning for delivery by evening.

The company revealed plans to establish more than 25 sub-same-day delivery sites across Europe during 2026, with Britain and Germany among the key markets.

Amazon Now, the firm's ultra-fast essentials delivery service, will also be rolled out to Manchester and Birmingham, extending its reach beyond the capital.

The grocery expansion forms part of a broader international push, with same-day fresh food delivery already operational in over 2,300 American cities and areas of Tokyo.

Further growth is anticipated in Japan, Britain and additional countries over the coming months.

These announcements came alongside news of a €10billion investment in Amazon's European fulfilment network, as the company works to accelerate its delivery capabilities.

The grocery push follows Amazon's decision to shut all of its Amazon Fresh physical stores across the UK, a closure that affected approximately 250 employees.

Around five of these locations were subsequently transformed into outlets for the company's Whole Foods brand.

Separately, Amazon announced it would provide more than a thousand supported internships for young people with learning disabilities and autism throughout Britain.

The company is also committing $1billion globally to staff training initiatives aimed at developing employee skills.

This funding will bolster Amazon's career choice skills programme, which has seen participation from over 30,000 UK workers since its launch in 2012.