By Al Root

Amazon.com was disrupting things again on Tuesday.

The online retail giant announced 30-minute rapid deliveries on "thousands of groceries and essentials." The service is now in Atlanta, Dallas--Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Seattle, "with rapid expansion underway in dozens more U.S. cities." Amazon Prime members pay $3.99 per order.

Amazon's expansion of its logistics business tends to unnerve investors. This past week, Amazon introduced "Amazon Supply Chain Solutions," which aims to provide distribution, warehousing, and last-mile delivery to "any business."

That sent a host of logistics companies, including FedEx and UPS, down about 10%.

Amazon, however, has been a logistics player for years. Amazon already delivers more packages than the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, or FedEx, says TD Cowen analyst Jason Seidl. It has a lot of internal volume. Amazon took the crown in 2025 from the USPS. It's been bigger than FedEx and UPS since 2023, with UPS and FedEx de-emphasizing business-to-consumer volumes in favor of higher margin business-to-business shipments.

What's more, Seidl sees Amazon Supply Chain Solutions becoming a customer of traditional brokers when it needs additional capacity.

Overall, ASCS competes in a $750 billion market. There should be enough room for other companies to carve out and maintain profitable niches. That's the initial view of Wall Street, at least. Many analysts took a more sanguine view of Amazon's announcement to investors.

As for rapid grocery delivery. That business targets services from Uber Technologies, DoorDash, Walmart and Target. Uber Eats and DoorDash have expanded beyond restaurant deliveries. And retailers have expanded their delivery options to compete with Amazon.

Uber stock rose 0.3% on Tuesday. DoorDash stock fell 1.4%, while the S&P 500 dropped 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1%.

Amazon stock was down 1.2%, while FedEx and UPS shares fell 0.7% and 1.6%, respectively. The latter moves might have been more impacted by oil than Amazon on Tuesday. International crude prices rose more than 3% to almost $108 per barrel.

Since the ASCS scare, FedEx and UPS stocks have bounced roughly 5% and 2%, respectively.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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May 12, 2026 16:27 ET (20:27 GMT)

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