Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

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Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by SamSpade »

Amazon plans new grocery store in L.A. as it thinks about how to conquer the industry
Via the Los Angeles Times
“They’re still figuring it out,” John Rossman, a former Amazon executive and author of the book “Think Like Amazon,” said. “But Amazon’s superpower is how patient it can be to let markets develop and to let customer adoption of them happen.”
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Re: Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by klkla »

The store will be at 6245 Topanga Canyon Blvd. in a building that previously was a Toy R US.

Bristol Farms operated a store in that shopping center for a few years that was not very successful. It closed around ten years ago.

According to the Daily News, "The new store will open right across the street from Warner Center, where several developers are building hundreds of residential units. One of those projects is the Westfield Promenade redevelopment, which proposes building a 34-acre site developed by global firm Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. It will include about 1,400 multi-family residential units, roughly 244,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, about 630,000 square feet of office space and a fully enclosed 7,500-seat sports and entertainment arena."

https://www.dailynews.com/2019/11/11/am ... er-center/
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Re: Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by Bagels »

www.wsj.com/amp/articles/amazons-grocer ... 1569927601

The WSJ reported Amazon has signed more than a dozen leases in the Los Angeles-area, including Irvine. I wonder where in Irvine? I can’t think of any retail vacancies...
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Re: Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by Alpha8472 »

Are there no abandoned Toys R Us stores? How about nearly dead Sears or Kmart stores in the area?

Kroger seems to want to close down underperforming stores in Southern California.

Amazon is so rich, they can negotiate and pay more for leases. Some of these independent grocery stores or asian markets may lose their leases if Amazon is willing to pay more.
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Re: Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: December 30th, 2019, 9:45 pm Are there no abandoned Toys R Us stores? How about nearly dead Sears or Kmart stores in the area?

Kroger seems to want to close down underperforming stores in Southern California.

Amazon is so rich, they can negotiate and pay more for leases. Some of these independent grocery stores or asian markets may lose their leases if Amazon is willing to pay more.
With what Amazon has done to retail is happening in retail with all of the store closures due to private equity groups buying and then purposely bankrupting retailers retail saturation, it seems there are a lot of good choices for retail spaces. But are these the right spaces for a grocery store? The space type that works for a toy store or Sears or Kmart is likely not quite right for a grocery store due to not being close enough to houses, access being difficult, etc.

I wonder if Amazon understands that.
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Re: Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by Bagels »

There's just a few percentage points of vacant retail space (outside of the Spectrum Center) in Irvine. Given that nearly the entire city was planned by The Irvine Company (TIC), there's less retail space per resident compared to most communities.

Woodbridge Village Center, which is an outdoor mall type shopping center, housed most of the vacant retail space in Irvine; TIC planned on leveling it and replacing it with housing. But the lack of retail space lead to it being filled up, and the thriving economy has given it a reprieve (the space the was long occupied by Vons but struggled through the years with different tenants seems to be doing well with Grocery Outlet). The only other space was the one Zion Market took over from Ralph's several years ago, but I read that they recently re-upped their lease. I guess the mystery continues...

Nonetheless, Amazon's entry will be interesting to watch.
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Re: Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by storewanderer »

I have in the past seen Grocery Outlet lose spaces when a competitor shows up who will pay more. They lost their Las Vegas stores to Save a Lot who failed fast, lost a store down in Granite Bay, CA to Wal Mart. I'm sure there are other examples. These may not have been doing great to begin with and maybe they would not be so willing to let go of better performing stores.
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Re: Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: December 30th, 2019, 10:41 pm With what Amazon has done to retail is happening in retail with all of the store closures due to private equity groups buying and then purposely bankrupting retailers retail saturation, it seems there are a lot of good choices for retail spaces. But are these the right spaces for a grocery store? The space type that works for a toy store or Sears or Kmart is likely not quite right for a grocery store due to not being close enough to houses, access being difficult, etc.

I wonder if Amazon understands that.
May also depend on their full background idea behind these stores. After all the issues with packages being stolen this holiday season, it might make sense to open what looks like a grocery store in a more office type area, if they plan to allow people to have their Amazon orders shipped there.

Doing that would be convenient for the office workers to stop after work to get their packages and also grab items from the grocery they may need for that night or the next day, and could also be handy for grabbing items during a lunch break.

(Note - This was just thinking of where our local Toys R Us was, though it has already been reoccupied - an area with much shopping, but also many office complexes just off that main road).
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Re: Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by storewanderer »

BillyGr wrote: December 31st, 2019, 10:56 am
storewanderer wrote: December 30th, 2019, 10:41 pm With what Amazon has done to retail is happening in retail with all of the store closures due to private equity groups buying and then purposely bankrupting retailers retail saturation, it seems there are a lot of good choices for retail spaces. But are these the right spaces for a grocery store? The space type that works for a toy store or Sears or Kmart is likely not quite right for a grocery store due to not being close enough to houses, access being difficult, etc.

I wonder if Amazon understands that.
May also depend on their full background idea behind these stores. After all the issues with packages being stolen this holiday season, it might make sense to open what looks like a grocery store in a more office type area, if they plan to allow people to have their Amazon orders shipped there.

Doing that would be convenient for the office workers to stop after work to get their packages and also grab items from the grocery they may need for that night or the next day, and could also be handy for grabbing items during a lunch break.

(Note - This was just thinking of where our local Toys R Us was, though it has already been reoccupied - an area with much shopping, but also many office complexes just off that main road).
The package theft issue is something. I wonder if they can somehow RFID the boxes and track the boxes. Maybe this already happens on high value items.

Other thought is if they are using these stores primarily as fulfillment centers for .com orders that are going out for delivery, vs. relying solely on walk in customers like a traditional grocery store, location will not be as important.
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Re: Amazon to open Woodland Hills "traditional" grocery

Post by Bagels »

I couldn't find a parking stop at Ralph's (Alton/Jeffrey) in Irvine this evening, so I stopped at the Gelson's across the street. I was one of only three shoppers in what's a very large store; of course, I saw the prices and suddenly remembered why I didn't shop there and left. I do ponder if Gelson's sold some of its leases to Amazon. Their legacy stores seem to do well, but newer stores don't, which isn't unsurprising since their product isn't much different than Ralph's / Albertson's-Vons ... but prices are much, much higher.

After Gelson's, I next went to Alberton's in the Quail Hill Shopping Center, about two miles up Alton. That store rarely has more than a handful of shoppers and would be a good candidate for divestiture, but I have a hard time believing Albertsons would sell any leases to Amazon. And the store at Quail Hill is one of the last, if not THE last, new build Albertsons to open in Greater Los Angeles, and is likely only halfway through its lease.

A few years ago, Sears' Great Indoors at I-5/Alton (across from the Irvine Spectrum) was to be subdivided between Vons (as a Pavilions) and At Home, but Walmart acquired the lease at the 11th Hour and opened a Supercenter, so stranger things have happened...
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