Online retailer Amazon. com is getting into the restaurant delivery business to compete with companies like GrubHub as Americans favour eateries over supermarkets.

The company is offering free one-hour delivery on orders from dozens of outlets to members of its Amazon Prime service in some areas of its hometown of Seattle, it said on Tuesday.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after Amazon started one-hour delivery of beer, wine and spirits to Seattle customers.

Spending at US restaurants and bars overtook grocery stores for the first time in March, with take-out sales appealing to eateries that can boost business during peak periods without adding seats.

“We obviously want to grow this,” Amazon Restaurants general manager Gus Lopez said in an interview.

Chicago-based GrubHub connected 30,000 local restaurants with customers in 800 US cities, as of the end of 2014. The company estimates Americans spent $70 billion on take-out meals in 2013.

- Bloomberg