Among online retailers, Thursday is “free-shipping day,” a promotional event aimed at getting nearly last-minute shoppers to order online and receive their packages in time for Christmas. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) is going the extra mile, as usual.

The online retailer announced Thursday morning the launch of its Prime Now service in selected areas of Manhattan. Prime Now offers free two-hour delivery and one-hour delivery at a cost of $7.99 for thousands of items. Amazon’s Prime service costs $99 a year and includes free two-day delivery and access to its Prime video rental and streaming service.

The Prime Now service may be the company’s most direct threat yet to big brick-and-mortar retailers like Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT). The items Amazon is offering to deliver in two hours include paper towels, shampoo, batteries and books, which a customer does not have to inspect at a store in order to make a selection. Chances are pretty high that a customer uses the same brand time after time. The Prime Now service is a virtual version of just grabbing the same shampoo off the store shelf — only without having to go to a store.

The Prime Now service includes a downloadable app for both iOS and Android mobile devices. The service will be available from 6:00 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week, according to Amazon, and the company’s new building on 34th Street in New York will be a hub for the service. The company also said it “can’t wait” to roll out the service to other cities in 2015. We wonder if Manhattan, Kansas, (population around 56,000) or Manhattan, Montana, (population around 1,500) is on the list of potential Prime Now roll-outs for next year.

Amazon’s shares were up about 1.3% in Thursday’s premarket trading, at $302.56 in a 52-week range of $284.00 to $408.06.

ALSO READ: Which Retailers Will Be Sales Winners on Final Weekend Before Christmas?

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