Amazon is testing the waters (at least in Seattle) with a new service, Amazon Fresh. By no means confuse this with the other recent services they have launched like flexible payment services or EC2 or even S3. No, this new service is not a technology service at all, it is a food delivery service. That’s right, you heard it correctly, a home delivery grocery service.

Now for those of you who were around for the bubble of the late 90s and early 2000, you can recall a company that set out to revolutionize the grocery industry by providing prompt, at home delivery of groceries. It was Webvan, and there were a few others to note, one particularly PeaPod (which the last I checked still exists on the East Coast, it became part of a grocery chain here called Giant). Webvan was the poster child of all things wrong in terms of burning through millions (and when I say millions, I mean like in the 40-50 million dollar range) of dollars and never really delivering on their promise. They had a good run, but ultimately had to close up shop.

Now don’t get me wrong, I loved the concept and had hoped that it would really catch on. I was a firm believer in the company, and at the time, one of my best friends was heading up their advertising department. But for many reasons, they failed and for that matter, the home grocery delivery sector failed. Like they say, time heals all wounds and the time has come for someone to try it again. Why not Amazon, right? The one big undertaking that Webvan had was to build out the distribution centers, that cost million upon millions to construct. Amazon has that covered, they have distribution centers all over the country that they can leverage, how hard could it be to add groceries to your inventory, right? Not only do they have the distribution centers in place, they also have and established business that is generating revenue that allows them to expand into other markets, Webvan did not have this.

In the end, it will be interesting to see how the service grows. Jeff Bezos is a sharp guy, and based on the latest services Amazon has released, he is clearly on to something here and sees markets that are ripe that Amazon can dominate in. Let’s hope this one sticks because I am sure I am like millions of other people who are tired of going to the grocery store!