Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by buckguy »

The article is about roll-out in the UK, not the US. I couldn't find any reference to any change in status of the program in the US. The pic in the article, though, is a US store in 14th Street NW in DC. They'll be opening another one less than a mile from that store soon.
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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by lake52 »

This article is exclusively regarding the UK division. In the past few days the US division has announced a new store in Florida and stated they’re looking for other locations
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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by HCal »

This may be a hot take, but Amazon needs to give up on physical retail. They just can't do it. Every concept they have started either failed or is struggling. Whole Foods is doing okay because it was doing well when they acquired it. They should stick to what they do best: online retail and web services.

Either these stores are some executive's vanity project, or they are meant to manipulate the market. I don't see how they can be viable businesses.
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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: September 21st, 2022, 11:17 pm This may be a hot take, but Amazon needs to give up on physical retail. They just can't do it. Every concept they have started either failed or is struggling. Whole Foods is doing okay because it was doing well when they acquired it. They should stick to what they do best: online retail and web services.

Either these stores are some executive's vanity project, or they are meant to manipulate the market. I don't see how they can be viable businesses.
They're not viable businesses and getting into grocery is highly visible. This isn't a few book stores or weird clothing stores that supposedly have hardly any inventory on the display and likely only see a couple hundred customers on a good day. A grocery store in normal terms sees thousands of customers in a day. These Amazon Fresh Stores being opened in dense areas are no exception and even the smallest ones should be seeing a couple thousand customers a day based on where they are located. If they don't run it correctly (they aren't...) it will tarnish their brand and exposing that to thousands of customers may hurt.

I don't think they are running Whole Foods correctly either. Whole Foods standards have declined significantly since Amazon purchased the chain. Their fresh products are not as fresh, their pricing is higher than it has ever been despite PR from Amazon that claims otherwise, mix is no longer as localized, the stores feel more "corporate," and service levels in the store do not feel the same. Much of this probably would have happened if Albertsons or Kroger had bought Whole Foods too so there is that which needs to be kept in mind. Whole Foods was going to sell out. There was no question. It was just a matter of who to.

I guess we will see continued development in the US of Fresh then since the article as was pointed out here was for UK. We will see what happens. That is good. Let's keep the $20 off $40 (based on total before sale price discounts) coupons coming.
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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by veteran+ »

Whole Foods under Amazon converted all their baggers into online order pullers (my speculation).

There are NO baggers any longer in the WF stores I visit. There are SO many clerks on the sales floor pulling orders that they are obstructing shoppers from shopping. RIDICULOUS! It is an obstacle course.

:evil:
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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by mbz321 »

Hm....their third PA store is about to open relatively soon...hoping for the Dash carts and not 'Just Walk Out', which I never had the chance to try out, but sounds like a nightmare. That being said the coupon gravy chain has vanished (they've only put out a few category-specific coupons in the last few circulars), so no more Fresh shopping for me!

Also, if anyone hadn't noticed, this article and source seems to be coming from the UK.....not sure if this halting is only a UK thing or a US thing...it's a bit unclear.
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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by storewanderer »

veteran+ wrote: September 22nd, 2022, 5:32 am Whole Foods under Amazon converted all their baggers into online order pullers (my speculation).

There are NO baggers any longer in the WF stores I visit. There are SO many clerks on the sales floor pulling orders that they are obstructing shoppers from shopping. RIDICULOUS! It is an obstacle course.

:evil:
Sounds like Amazon Fresh.

At least the shelves are kept well stocked at Whole Foods, at least from what I see.

Many stores in CA do not have baggers any longer due to payroll cuts. The customer is basically expected to do their own bagging. And I'm not just talking with reusable bags. I routinely see customers bagging their own items at Safeway in NorCal. Bag fee seems to not be assessed when that happens, cashier seems to not notice what the customer is doing. Stater seems to very consistently have baggers... Raleys is also pretty good about it.

I look at it this way- if these stores want the cashier to spend time bagging rather than have the (lower paid) bagger - that is their thing. The customers who are bagging themself are enabling the stores to keep not having baggers.

If you look at the way front ends are designed in many stores they aren't even designed to have baggers. Wal Mart, Fred Meyer, Target, these stores sell a lot of food and many of their front ends are designed in such a way that a bagger isn't even possible. One of my gripes about Albertsons in the 90's and 00's used to be they didn't have more than one or two baggers and they were usually on carts or carry outs and not bagging; at that time that was the exception and not the norm. Now it is like the situation has flipped and it is very few stores that consistently have baggers bagging.
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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: September 22nd, 2022, 11:22 pm The customers who are bagging themself are enabling the stores to keep not having baggers.
These stores must have very large, sturdy bags, if the customers can fit into them without breaking them ;)

But seriously, even before NY started with the no plastic thing I usually did pack the items (on those occasions when I was in a store without self-checkout) as the stores that did have people to do it either never explained how or they got too many people that couldn't lift more than a couple pounds at a time.

Thus, when the employees packed them, you could have 10 bags to hold 20 items, where doing it yourself you might have 3 or 4 (if the items were larger).

Even doing that, I still have some bags around (now 2 years since they actually stopped giving them out, even though the law was starting in March, the implementation was held off for a bit after some virus thing started that month) - had I let the employees pack them, they would have lasted the rest of the decade!
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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by buckguy »

The last time I saw baggers was at a Heinen's (higher end, service oriented chain in Cleveland & Chicago) and they don't always have them and the ones they do have float. At a store like Giant or Safeway--probably not since the Bronze Age. Even at Whole Foods, not always and now, none at all.

The stock pullers at my local WF are different from anyone who had been there before--the store has had little turnover and it's close enough that I go there more than I would otherwise, so I would have noticed a change of job. They mostly are there in the am and I'd imagine that most are part-timers, esp. because the volume of stock pulling seems to vary quite a bit over time in what is otherwise a consistently very busy store.
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Re: Amazon Halts All New Amazon Fresh Just Walk Out Stores

Post by cw06 »

veteran+ wrote: September 22nd, 2022, 5:32 am Whole Foods under Amazon converted all their baggers into online order pullers (my speculation).
Most chains are doing that now, and with cashiers too. At my last grocery job, half the cashiers we're turned into order pullers. It's honestly a better job. You walk around with a cart, sipping on your drink, and get to duck into an office whenever you need a break.
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