Google will now deliver fresh food, competing with Amazon

This year, Google Express will add fresh fruit and vegetables to its online grocery delivery platform in select U.S. cities, in a bid to get you to buy more through its site

The biggest tech companies – Google, Amazon, Uber – aren’t just fighting to take over your mobile phone. They want to deliver your fruits and vegetables.

Google will start testing a delivery service for fresh groceries in two U.S. cities later this year, set to compete with e-retailer Amazon, and startups like Instacart.

According to Brian Elliott, general manager of Google Express, who spoke to Bloomberg, the trial will begin in San Francisco and one other as-yet-unnamed city in the US.

Whole Foods Market Inc. and Costco will be among Google’s partners for the new service, while the company already offers delivery services of non-perishable groceries in Manhattan and Chicago with supermarket Walgreen and others.

The move means Google is now directly competing with Amazon, which launched its Amazon Fresh grocery and fresh food delivery network in the U.S. in 2006. In July, Amazon was rumoured to be trialling drive-through grocery stores in Silicon Valley and a restaurant delivery service, similar toDeliveroo in the UK, in Seattle. These additions signify a big push into food delivery from the retailer, which offers the cheapest grocery delivery service compared to rivals in New York City, according to an April study by Nomura Securities.