Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

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pseudo3d
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Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by pseudo3d »

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon- ... es-2021-10

So apparently a leaked document says that Amazon (even after adjusting for COVID) had some pretty rosy plans for cashierless Amazon Fresh stores, with 33 by year end, 280 by 2022 and over 500 by the end of 2023. Neither Amazon Fresh nor Amazon Go have performed particularly well even as stores (much less cashierless features). Amazon Go (all cashierless) is still way underperforming for what in 2018 was predicted by thousands by this time; it has about 30 stores currently, with Amazon Fresh at around 20.

I wonder what the long-range plan for the stores are. Amazon's not a particular type to shut down divisions when it's less than a success (Walmart's experiments are swiftly cut off, for instance--Jet.com, Sam's Club Business Center, Más Club, Vudu, ModCloth, etc.) but I do wonder if Amazon is thinking about dismantling or selling the physical stores.
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Re: Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by storewanderer »

Typical tactics Amazon uses to scare the competition.

I think Amazon will keep experimenting with physical stores.

I'd like to see them sell Whole Foods- but I think it is an important piece of their overall food business. The standard has fallen so low at Whole Foods, it feels like a high priced Kroger at best.
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Re: Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by veteran+ »

Whole Foods here seems to be status quo except for slightly lower prices.

Don't see any deterioration yet.
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Re: Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by Alpha8472 »

The biggest deterioration was at 365 Whole Foods in Concord, California. It started as a discount Whole Foods with lower prices and less selection. Now it has gone to a full priced Whole Foods and lacks the selection of a real Whole Foods. They even changed the name to just plain Whole Foods.
Last edited by Alpha8472 on October 28th, 2021, 1:21 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by storewanderer »

Alpha8472 wrote: October 27th, 2021, 3:19 pm The biggest deterioration was at 365 Whole Foods in Concord, California. It started as a discount Whole Foods will lower prices and less selection. Now it has gone to a full priced Whole Foods and lacks the selection of a real Whole Foods. They even changed the name to just plain Whole Foods.
This is how the South Lake Tahoe Whole Foods is. It was built and fixtured as a 365 Store. It then opened as a normal Whole Foods but it has almost no features. The bakery/deli/hot food prep area is the size of a small bedroom and the meat room isn't much bigger. No service cases of any kind. Center store is fairly large, as is produce. Front end is small and poorly designed.
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Re: Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by babs »

storewanderer wrote: October 27th, 2021, 9:56 pm
Alpha8472 wrote: October 27th, 2021, 3:19 pm The biggest deterioration was at 365 Whole Foods in Concord, California. It started as a discount Whole Foods will lower prices and less selection. Now it has gone to a full priced Whole Foods and lacks the selection of a real Whole Foods. They even changed the name to just plain Whole Foods.
This is how the South Lake Tahoe Whole Foods is. It was built and fixtured as a 365 Store. It then opened as a normal Whole Foods but it has almost no features. The bakery/deli/hot food prep area is the size of a small bedroom and the meat room isn't much bigger. No service cases of any kind. Center store is fairly large, as is produce. Front end is small and poorly designed.
The 365 Whole Foods in Lake Oswego, OR is the same way. However the 365 store format was one of the worst executions ever in retail. Prices weren't any lower, selection was poor, it was destined to fail.
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Re: Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by storewanderer »

babs wrote: October 27th, 2021, 10:35 pm

The 365 Whole Foods in Lake Oswego, OR is the same way. However the 365 store format was one of the worst executions ever in retail. Prices weren't any lower, selection was poor, it was destined to fail.
Prices were definitely lower... regular Whole Foods pricing really was higher.

I get the vibe the Amazon Fresh Store has its perimeter being run/operated somewhat similar to a 365 Store.

Not sure why they thought Lake Oswego needed a discount format though. South Lake Tahoe was also a somewhat curious pick but it is tough to staff and deal with shrink at a seasonal store so maybe they wanted a lower labor format (spoiler is that South Lake Tahoe is basically busy all year now).
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Re: Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by J-Man »

The Amazon Fresh store in North Hollywood, CA, was planned as a Whole Foods 365, but before it was completed, the 365 concept had been eliminated.
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Re: Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by babs »

storewanderer wrote: October 27th, 2021, 10:43 pm
babs wrote: October 27th, 2021, 10:35 pm

The 365 Whole Foods in Lake Oswego, OR is the same way. However the 365 store format was one of the worst executions ever in retail. Prices weren't any lower, selection was poor, it was destined to fail.
Prices were definitely lower... regular Whole Foods pricing really was higher.

I get the vibe the Amazon Fresh Store has its perimeter being run/operated somewhat similar to a 365 Store.

Not sure why they thought Lake Oswego needed a discount format though. South Lake Tahoe was also a somewhat curious pick but it is tough to staff and deal with shrink at a seasonal store so maybe they wanted a lower labor format (spoiler is that South Lake Tahoe is basically busy all year now).
The Lake Oswego store was supposed to be a Whole Foods. In fact, New Seasons and Whole Foods got into a bidding war over the space, so I imagine they are paying a lot for it. What happened is that Whole Foods decided to take the next several stores their real estate department had lined up to open them as a 365.store instead of a standard store. Had nothing to do with demographics or even common sense. Fast forward to today, it's no longer a 365 store but hasn't been remodeled in a full service store either. They need to bite the bullet, close the store, gut it, and open up as a store format suited to that wealthy community. No idea why they don't just do the obvious.

On the flip side, there are several Whole Foods in the area that would do better as an Amazon Fresh. Classic example is the Scholl's Ferry store.
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Re: Amazon Fresh's cashierless plan falling short

Post by Brian Lutz »

The 365 store at Bellevue Square (which closed after only a few months of operation and just prior to the Amazon merger) remains vacant, having never been reoccupied after the store closed. Given the fact that KDC (the mall's management) successfully sued Whole Foods and got a judge to order them to continue operating the store but it never opened again, I would assume Amazon had to negotiate some sort of settlement and is presumably still paying what I would assume to be a rather expensive lease on an empty store. There would be little point in trying to make a Whole Foods store out of this because there is already one less than a mile away on the other side of 405, so this might theoretically be a good place for Amazon to try out one of their cashierless stores, but there's already three nearby grocery stores (a Safeway and a QFC within a couple of blocks, and the aforementioned Whole Foods) and Amazon already opened two other Fresh stores in Bellevue (the cashierless store at Factoria, and a smaller one in what used to be the Sears Auto Center in the Overlake neighborhood.)
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