11/28/2023 0 Comments Amazon fresh locations![]() ![]() ![]() The Alexa terminals suggest that Amazon wants to staff Fresh stores as leanly as possible, even if it’s liberally using employees during the launch phase to address potential customer pain points. But on our second visit, all of the terminals were experiencing “connectivity issues,” perhaps the closest Amazon Fresh stores will get to a business-disrupting employee strike. On our first visit, the Alexa terminals were both working and helpful, accurately pointing us towards items we wanted to locate. ![]() Instead of having employees answer inventory-related questions, Amazon scatters Alexa terminals throughout the store, offering AI guidance on item locations, wine pairings, and measurement unit conversions. That feeling extends to how Amazon Fresh uses - and doesn’t use - people in its operations. If it wasn’t for a cadre of friendly greeters, walking through Amazon Fresh would feel more like visiting a warehouse or Costco than shopping in a typical supermarket of its size. A staffed customer service area is in the back, not the front, which instead allocates a lot of interior space to managing shopping carts.Įven the baked goods, which in other stores flow attractively off the edges of store shelves, seem to have been assigned to a specific corner of Amazon Fresh and told to stay firmly within the lines. There are places to purchase whole cooked chickens for $4.97 and pizzas for $8.99, but nowhere to sit and eat them. From the signage to the aisles and specialty counters, Amazon’s latest store feels as if it was designed largely by engineers, and conceived to be as easy as possible to retrofit inside another retailer’s abandoned space - in this case, the 40,000 feet formerly occupied by a Babies R Us store.Īpart from the produce, nothing about the environment feels organic: Floors are spartan, displays are boxy, and everything looks to have been optimized for customers by computers, rather than humans. Unlike Whole Foods, the high-end supermarket chain Amazon acquired in 2017, Amazon Fresh stores look like small warehouses, and have all the charm of Walmart’s grocery sections, minus two-thirds the people and half the choices. Amazon.Register Now A boxy, spartan layout, seemingly by design.Layoffs, buyouts, and rescinded offers: Amazon’s status as a top tech employer is taking a hit – Vox.Amazon Is Said to Plan to Lay Off Thousands of Employees – The New York Times.Amazon is closing all of its Books, 4-star and pop-up stores – RetailWire.Amazon Fresh grocery stores slated for Plymouth, Dearborn – Detroit Free Press.Amazon Fresh stores have gone stale – The Real Deal.‘Zombie’ Amazon Grocery Stores Pile Up as Openings Grind to a Halt – The Information.One positive: Amazon posted a 10 percent year-over-year increase in net sales at its physical retail stores in the third quarter. At the time, an Amazon spokesman told The New York Times the company will “focus more on our Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go and Amazon Style stores and our Just Walk Out technology.” In March of this year, Amazon surprised many by moving to shutter its Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star and pop-up locations. A report on December 2 from Computer World indicated the layoffs could balloon to 20,000 as a pandemic-induced hiring spree gets reversed. In mid-November, The New York Times reported that Amazon was planning to lay off approximately 10,000 employees, the devices organization, retail division and human resources being the hardest hit departments. While the company is on the hook for rent, maintenance and taxes, shutting down a store could also force Amazon to pay a fee for a lease withdrawal or severance to hired employees.” The Real Deal speculates, “It’s cheaper for the company to keep the stores in place while not operating, rather than ditch the stores altogether. Weeks of missed package notices were found at some unopened locations. ![]() The company has another 26 in development, with a recent Detroit Free Press report indicating two are heading to the Detroit region. stores and 19 UK stores, Amazon has refrained from opening any new Fresh stores since September, despite appearing to complete at least seven locations, according to The Real Deal ’s analysis of The Information’s findings. Amazon’s pivot from rapid expansion to cost-cutting has left ‘zombie’ grocery stores like these across the country.”Īfter two years of expansion that resulted in 44 U.S. But the shelves are empty, the doors are locked and no employees are around. Wrote The Information, “For the most part, these Amazon Fresh stores look like they’re ready to open: The lights are on there are signs for meat, seafood, bread and 15-cent bananas. Throughout the U.S., a number of new Amazon Fresh stores have been built out, but are just sitting there, leading some to wonder if Amazon is quietly backing away from the Just Walk Out grocery concept. ![]()
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