Amazon’s $6.8B “Project Mercury” Aims to Rival Walmart with Massive Same-Day Delivery Expansion

Project Mercury Targets 1,000 Locations by 2031

The multibillion-dollar effort aims to reshape how Americans purchase everyday items such as fresh food, paper towels, and cough medicine. Walmart has dominated this sticky market segment through thousands of large physical stores situated close to most consumers.

Internal planning documents described Project Mercury as a transformational initiative to fundamentally redesign the same-day delivery network around shorter transit distances. While Amazon currently places these same-day facilities roughly a 90-minute drive from customers, the new strategy targets positioning SSDs within a 10-mile straight-line radius of 80% of Prime subscribers in the United States by 2031.

The spokesperson noted that Amazon’s same-day network currently serves more than 10,000 cities and towns, including rural communities, though same-day orders are not exclusively fulfilled through SSD facilities. The spokesperson added that the company continues to invest in fast delivery speed and convenience alongside wide selection and everyday low prices.

Challenging Walmart’s Proximity Advantage

The expansion plan strikes directly at Walmart’s core competitive advantage: physical proximity to shoppers. Roughly 90% of the US population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart or Sam’s Club, allowing those locations to double as local fulfillment hubs. Walmart reports that 95% of US households can now receive delivery in under three hours.

Amazon has pursued multiple avenues to close this gap. B-17 previously reported on Project Kobe, an Amazon initiative exploring Walmart-sized stores featuring large automated backrooms capable of fulfilling online orders and functioning as local delivery hubs. Amazon is also testing an all-day delivery model with 10 overlapping delivery windows, expanding Amazon Now for ultrafast essentials delivery, and utilizing SSDs as launch points for its Prime Air drone delivery service.

Regional planning documents reveal that Amazon has expressed concern over lagging delivery speeds in certain markets, noting that competitors like Walmart and Best Buy are outpacing its capabilities in regions like Canada. Project Mercury addresses this by building a dense web of specialized fulfillment centers rather than replicating a traditional brick-and-mortar store network.

Grocery Expansion and Market Share Stakes

Proximity is increasingly critical as Amazon deepens its push into groceries and everyday essentials. Amazon reports that its grocery business now generates more than $150 billion in annual gross sales, a figure that includes nonperishable products alongside traditional fresh groceries. However, Walmart’s grocery operation remains significantly larger.

By establishing a dense network of localized fulfillment hubs, Amazon intends to capture a larger share of routine household shopping habits. The success of Project Mercury will depend on the company’s ability to scale its infrastructure to match the localized convenience that physical retail chains have enjoyed.