Amazon Food & Grocery is actually a multi-faceted shop with tons of products for dairy-free and other special diets. And thanks to this company’s widespread distribution, they offer many ways to save money on your grocery bill. Today, I’m sharing a big update of this post (from 12 years ago!) to include the latest tools for budget grocery shopping on Amazon.
Some of the links below do include Amazon affiliate links. The proceeds help to keep this site running, so I appreciate your support. I was not paid for this post, and do shop Amazon Food and Grocery myself!
Amazon Food & Grocery
This is the big general store for Amazon food. They have just about every pantry item imaginable. If you can’t find that coconut milk powder, nutritional yeast, or allergy-friendly chocolate at your local grocer, then this is the place to look. AmazonFresh, for fresh groceries, is available in select regions, so I will address it later in this post.
Finding Special Diet Products on Amazon
Once you are in this section, you can discover the “Specialty” search function in the sidebar. It does include categories for vegan and lactose-free, but not dairy-free. It can still be helpful, but will miss on some items. I typically use the general search since I usually know what products I’m looking for anyway.
How to Save Money on Amazon
From ongoing discounts to one-time coupons to free shipping, here are a several easy ways to save money on Amazon food.
Amazon Prime – This is probably the most popular program on Amazon. It includes free 2-day shipping on many items plus additional fast and free shipping options. It also includes cashback bonuses, special discounts, free streaming perks, and so much more. You can read about all of the benefits of Amazon Prime here.
Prime Pantry – This is a “store” on Amazon where Prime members can shop for groceries and household products in everyday package sizes rather than bulk sizes. It’s an exclusive benefit for Prime Members, and often includes additional savings and coupons. But there is an additional monthly fee for the free shipping over $40 benefit.
Grocery Sales & Deals: Rotating discounts are shared in this section and they are fun to sift through! These discounts are typically available to everyone, not just Prime members.
Grocery & Gourmet Coupons – Coupon clippers will love this feature. You actually “clip” the coupon by clicking on it, and it is applied to your eligible product purchase. Like the Sales & Deals, the coupon offers rotate often.
Free Shipping – Click on the “Free Shipping” option in the sidebar to see all items that qualify for free shipping on orders of $25 or more. This is their slow shipping, but it is available for all customers (not just Prime members), and is a great value if you aren’t in a hurry.
Subscribe & Save – If you pick the Subscribe & Save option on eligible products, you receive up to a 15% discount and free shipping. There is no minimum order or Prime membership required! The catch is that you are signing up to receive repeat shipments of this item on a schedule of your choice. But, you can cancel it at any time – even after the first shipment.
Buying Fresh Food From Amazon
There are two potential options here: shopping at Whole Foods or ordering from Amazon Fresh.
Whole Foods is now owned by Amazon, and I must admit that their store redesigns do create kind of a warehouse shopping feel. They seem to carry more inventory and keep the shelves tightly stocked.
AmazonFresh is only available in select areas. A notice will pop down on the main page if you are not in an area that they service. AmazonFresh is the entire grocery store at your fingertips. We love it for specialty items like dairy-free creamers and non-dairy ice creams that might be hard to find locally. Yes, they have fresh and frozen food! And AmazonFresh has several delivery options, some of which are free with a minimum order or to Prime members.
Other Amazon Conveniences
Amazon Locker – You can have your order shipped to an Amazon locker for no additional cost (the regular shipping or free shipping rates apply). And it includes free returns. The lockers are often located at grocery stores, like Whole Foods or Safeway.
Amazon Echo – For tech lovers, Amazon offers Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Spot, Echo Plus, and Echo Show bring Alexa into your home. She can place orders for you on your voice command. There don’t appear to be any discounts, deals, or free shipping perks for using an Echo to order, but it can still be handy.
My Dairy-Free Amazon Shopping Lists
- Go Dairy Free: Ingredients I Use for Recipe Testing
- Eat Dairy Free: Ingredients I Use for Recipe Testing
And yes, you can buy both of my books, Go Dairy Free and Eat Dairy Free on Amazon!
10 Comments
I have a love hate relationship with Amazon, but use it all the time! It is such a great place for finding gluten-free options too.
I know what you mean Jules!
Yeah, basically we use Amazon for everything!
Great review! I knew about some of this, but wow, Amazon really has great options for allergy friendly and health oriented shopping.
I may very well be addicted to amazon. I use it for e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. I’ve never seen the grocery store deals before though, so thanks for sharing that. Will keep a look out there.
The deal section was my original Amazon love. I used to check every week for the latest. I’m so glad they’ve kept it going, even with all of the new programs and savings options.
After trying many of the links from your article and finding those stores are no longer open, I then noticed that this article was written 10 years ago! It would be so great if it could be updated 🙂
Hi Suzanne, the listings aren’t outdated, but thank you for your note. We’ve cut all that are no longer open and will be adding new ones soon!
Hi…I am looking for web sites that sell lactose free foods and baked goods to order for my Mum. Can you advise me please?
Regards,
Patty Donnelly
See our online retailer page: http://www.godairyfree.org/dairy-free-grocery-shopping-guide/online-food-retailers