The L.A. Amazon Fresh service is available to Amazon Prime members as part of a 90-day trial, with delivery free for orders over $35 and with a small fee incrementally priced for lesser orders. After the 90 days, published reports indicate that those members may be upgraded to a “Prime Fresh” membership, which combines regular Amazon Prime with Fresh services and may cost a reported $299.

Calls to Amazon public relations were not immediately returned.

Amazon Fresh has been available in Seattle since 2007. Los Angeles is its first test outside that market, with San Francisco rumored to come on line later this year and an additional 20 markets under consideration for 2014.

Reaction from the real estate and food community to Amazon Fresh's Los Angeles rollout was mixed, but many offered the benefit of the doubt thanks to Amazon's spectacular success with other products.

“I think in particular areas they may get a good reception,” says Gwen MacKenzie, president of brokerage at the Woodmont Co. and a 15-year retail executive on the West Coast. “It's very difficult to drive around and people are focused on convenience. Even if there's a premium they have to pay, lots of customers are willing to do so.”

MacKenzie tells GlobeSt.com that Amazon will “get really good data and adjust” their strategy to suit the particular market, as they've done with virtually everything they sell. Los Angeles is a city that has long experience with home grocery delivery, she notes, dating back to the days when Pink Dot had a large presence in the sector. Thus, MacKenzie says, Amazon's arrival will likely be felt in the bottom lines of local grocers.

“There's a finite amount to spend on groceries, so any grocery dollars spent with Amazon will come out of someone else's sales,” she says. “No question it will have an impact.”

Ken Simril, the president and CEO of Fleishmann's Vinegar, which sells retail vinegars in Whole Foods and other upscale health and wellness-focused outlets, tells GlobeSt.com that he's already seen one of the Amazon Fresh trucks on the road.

“Amazon has always done a great job on e-commerce products,” Simril says. “But this is several logistical challenges greater. Others have tried and it's tough to do. If you look at the retail grocery space, margins are already thin (around 5%-6%) and they push back on the manufacturers. If you add the volatility (in the price of) diesel, then add in wages, health care costs, it's hard to see how they will be competitive with a brick-and- mortar establishment. They will have to maintain warehouses and facilities to store the produce and food products that people will look for.”

Simril, who markets in seven states, also mentioned the “unintended consequences” of Los Angeles. “If you look at traffic and congestion, particularly in Hollywood or the beach communities, you can't get trucks into those streets. So people say they will just get a smaller truck. But now you've got two trucks and two drivers. Add that and costs go up.”

But Amazon Fresh may have “some secret sauce,” Simril concedes. “They have algorithms and mathematics and maybe they can figure it out and optimize it in a specific geographical region. They have some insight to customer behavior flows and patterns.”

Chris Wilson, chairman of Wilson Commercial, a West Coast retail brokerage firm, tells GlobeSt.com that the Amazon Fresh rollout isn't anything for traditional grocers to worry about – just yet, that is.

“I think initially it will be insignificant,” Wilson says. “But in time, like all of the Internet retail sales in the past eight to nine years, it will erode traditional grocery store sales.”

Wilson says it's easy to get to the grocery store in Southern California, and notes that many of the major brick-and-mortar players have used “almost the entirety of their real estate capital” to remodel in the last six to seven years, trying to making coming into the stores more appealing by emphasizing "cleanliness, choice and a better store experience," Wilson says.

He also points out that Vons, among others, has had a very active grocery delivery service running for several years, “and while they've seen some growth, it's not been transformative.”

Asked if he would try the Amazon Fresh service, Wilson was emphatic. “No. But I'm the wrong guy to ask. I have a beautiful wife at home for 25 years, and she handles the shopping.”

As previously reported by GlobeSt.com, Patrick Owens, SVP of retail advisory services for Transwestern, says the grocery market is changing