Just when you thought Amazon couldn’t add any more products or services, they’ve done just that with their Amazon Fresh Grocery Stores.
Here are some important things to know about Amazon Fresh and their new physical stores:
- There are 16 physical stores as of this writing. Their first physical grocery store opened in May of 2021 in Franconia, VA, a suburb of Washington DC. They now have 16 stores spread across the country in California, Washington state, Illinois, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. There are also five stores in London.
- The stores vary in size. Many stores are a standard 2500 or so square feet, but one Los Angeles store is a whopping 35,000 square feet!
- The stores are cashierless. A big part of Amazon’s venture into physical locations for necessities is to bring the online experience into the store. This means the checkout process does not have a cashier. It works through the Amazon Dash Cart shopping cart, which allows users to find items, track their current and past purchases, and pay right from their cart.
- The larger stores came after trials of smaller locations. In February and September of 2020, Amazon released their two Amazon Go stores, which were smaller and had more of the feeling of a convenience store. The first of these stores opened in Seattle, WA. Similarly to the Fresh stores, the Go stores are operated entirely by the Amazon app, tracking entry and allowing purchasers to skip the traditional checkout line.
- More are on the way. Amazon Fresh stores are planned for multiple locations across the country. Watching how the competition, shoppers, and the stock market respond to these new types of shopping experiences will be quite fascinating.