New Amazon Grocery Chain

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klkla
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by klkla »

The one in Woodland Hills is open but they are not allowing customers in yet. It's only open for online orders.

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/04 ... ders-only/

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb ... CnoECBIQBg
mbz321
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by mbz321 »

klkla wrote: August 15th, 2020, 2:10 pm The one in Woodland Hills is open but they are not allowing customers in yet. It's only open for online orders.

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2020/04 ... ders-only/

Interesting. I didn't see it on Amazon's list of B&M locations/operations, but maybe they aren't counting it until it is open to the public. Well at any rate in my previous post, it will be the first on the east coast :P.
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by pseudo3d »

All this time and still no official name. Makes me wonder if they were going to brand it under the "Amazon Go" name or a variant thereof, but they were still going back and forth on the drawing board.
TW-Upstate NY
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

mbz321 wrote: August 15th, 2020, 9:48 am It looks like my neck of the woods (Warrington, PA) might be the first one to get a 'full sized' Amazon branded grocery store.
It was an old Genuardi's/Giant supermarket
Wasn't that the last Genuardi's the company constructed/developed prior to the Safeway acquisition? I remember spending a weekend in that area and checking the place out and that was sometime in the fall of 2001 and it had just recently opened. Was actually quite a nice store.
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by mbz321 »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: August 16th, 2020, 9:00 am

Wasn't that the last Genuardi's the company constructed/developed prior to the Safeway acquisition? I remember spending a weekend in that area and checking the place out and that was sometime in the fall of 2001 and it had just recently opened. Was actually quite a nice store.
I believe it was. It opened right before the acquisition (early to mid 2000 along with the other stores in the center), The store was an absolute dog from the get go due to the sudden reputation plunge once Safeway took over. The location was kind of awkward as well, facing into the shopping center and not really directly on a major road. I shopped in there occasionally and never remember there being more than a small handful of shoppers. It was a very nice and modern store, and was never touched by Safeway except for the addition of a Pharmacy. Wegmans opened across the road in 2006 which pretty much doomed it.

Giant took it over in 2011 (surprisingly doing a very low-budget remodel, not sure why they bothered as most of the store was still in mint condition from the Genuardi's era. The pharmacy was not included in the 'new' store), only because Safeway made them take it in order to get a more profitable location (Genuardi's in Feasterville, PA, which Giant has since relocated to a new store in the same vicinity last year) (I think Feasterville was the first 'modern' Genuardi's store before they really went on an expansion and upgrading spree). Anyway, the store did no better as a Giant (I worked in this location for about 8 months in 2012/2013) and the store closed at the end of October or very beginning of November in that year. (A new Walmart was in the works for a new adjoining shopping center which probably hastened the decision....that finally opened in 2016) It was vacant in the years since since besides an occasional use by a Spirit Halloween store. Sort of funny, but Giant actually made a return to Warrington last year by acquiring the lease of a Redner's market. They closed their location up the road in Jamison (former Genuardi's built in 1999 that was heavily invested in and a busy store...Safeway even gave it a lifestyle remodel and a Pharmacy) and relocated there.

(I think there was only one 'Genuardi's' that was officially opened by Safeway in NJ.(Cherry Hill I believe?) with the awful Safeway decor package of the time (pre lifestyle).
klkla
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by klkla »

Some photos of the new Woodland Hills store are showing up on Yelp now. The biggest innovation seems to be the shopping carts which serve as self-checkout:

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/amazon- ... -angeles-3
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by storewanderer »

klkla wrote: September 22nd, 2020, 6:49 pm Some photos of the new Woodland Hills store are showing up on Yelp now. The biggest innovation seems to be the shopping carts which serve as self-checkout:

https://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/amazon- ... -angeles-3
In the low margin grocery business, those carts strike me as very cost prohibitive. Maybe Amazon doesn't care or will have some way to monitor cart loss/theft.

Also seems very much like Kroger's Scan Bag Go- a rehash of 15+ year old technology the old Albertsons tossed out the door (big huge massive flop disliked by customers and shrink machine) except that the scanner is fixed to the cart and you can do weighable right in the cart vs. having to find a scale like you do with Kroger's Scan Bag Go. So this Amazon Scan Bag Go looks much easier to use than the Kroger one and old Albertsons one.

Also as Amazon picks orders for in-store pick up users, they can pick orders this way too which should make their picking more efficient. Compared to most grocers where the order pickers are using handheld scanners (same experience the customer has using Kroger Scan Bag and Go) and freestanding scales for weighables. So even if these carts don't work out for customer use they definitely would have a place for employees to use to pick orders for pick up.

Store looks like a Whole Foods with conventional branded products. I like the looks of the store and the prices look good, then again it is a new store, so of course it looks good and of course it has good prices. It may be a place I would shop.
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by SamSpade »

Two more "Fresh" locations coming to Seattle - one could be a very fast move in, although I think that Factoria Safeway probably needs some rehab.

The second is in an underserved area of the Central District in Seattle, although New Seasons was opening north of there at 23rd and Union (I believe this became a drug store or Puget Sound Co-op Grocery?).

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/a ... ttle-area/
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by storewanderer »

SamSpade wrote: January 12th, 2021, 6:01 pm Two more "Fresh" locations coming to Seattle - one could be a very fast move in, although I think that Factoria Safeway probably needs some rehab.

The second is in an underserved area of the Central District in Seattle, although New Seasons was opening north of there at 23rd and Union (I believe this became a drug store or Puget Sound Co-op Grocery?).

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/a ... ttle-area/
I am surprised Amazon has not moved fast and furious around Seattle to open more stores. It is probably more a matter of when than if. This will be very bad news for QFC and Safeway. QFC with its previous strong fresh departments (10-15 years ago) and smaller stores probably would have weathered this storm better but I am not really sure at this point.
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Re: New Amazon Grocery Chain

Post by pseudo3d »

It looks like it seems like a clean enough store with perishables, but...what does it actually do? There's a reason why Kroger and Albertsons don't really expand (without acquisitions) anymore, it's that they don't have really anything to offer that can snatch market share from existing stores. (Albertsons learned that the hard way).

The only place in the country where that seems to be an exception is Hy-Vee in Minneapolis-St. Paul because Cub Foods was in a weak enough position to pick off.

Obviously, Amazon has enough money that they CAN brute-force stores into the market (or start snapping up smaller companies), but they aren't, and I wonder what the end-plan is. Are they playing the long game, or is it all hubris that will eventually get cut and sold off?
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