Unlike other Amazon services, which instantly had national or even global reach, Fresh’s potential was bounded by the zip codes where its fleet of drivers could make deliveries. The Fresh team also had to solve a nest of thorny problems, like what to do with expired food, how to manage the complex banana ripening process, and how to respond when customers complained they had found something unseemly in their dinner. Still, over the course of six years, they made slow but steady progress that crept toward profitability.
