![]() There were lots of Fresh staffers - too many, really - constantly restocking shelves while otherwise keeping to themselves, plus the aforementioned greeters at the front doors to help get people in and out of the store. 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. “And in my opinion, those stores are never going to open,” he said.Īmazon has a reputation for being a trailblazing disrupter in retail, but since Jassy was promoted to CEO and president in 2021, the bar has been raised for profitability, said Garry Church, senior vice president of enterprise strategy and development at Inmar Intelligence, a retail industry analytics company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.Register Now A boxy, spartan layout, seemingly by design The renovated, unopened spaces in Plainview and East Setauket are among several from Virginia to New Jersey that have the capacity to open within two weeks as Amazon Fresh stores, but they won’t be, Metzger said. “They are a failure … ‘Just Walk Out’ technology is not a game-changer for people who are buying food,” he said. We’re working hard at it,” he said.Īmazon recorded a $720 million charge in the fourth quarter on property, equipment and operating leases, primarily related to its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go physical stores, chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky told analysts.Īmazon Fresh stores are struggling for several reasons: The merchandising is confusing the store operations, including customer service, are subpar and the quality of perishable foods ranges from average to slightly above average, said Jeff Metzger, publisher of Food Trade News in Columbia, Maryland. “We’ve … decided over the last year or so that we’re not going to expand the physical Fresh doors until we have that equation with differentiation and economic value that we like, but we’re optimistic that we’re going to find that in 2023. ![]() 2, Amazon CEO and president Andrew Jassy told analysts during an earnings call that the company was pausing the opening of new Amazon Fresh stores while it experiments to try to find a format that resonates with customers. ![]() But Amazon, which had a net loss of $2.7 billion in 2022, is cutting costs and trying to boost profitability companywide. There are now 44 Amazon Fresh stores in eight states and Washington, D.C., according to its website.Īmazon, which bought the Whole Foods Market chain in 2017, launched Amazon Fresh to attract customers who wanted a more traditional grocery selection instead of high-end Whole Foods’ organic and natural offerings. ![]() By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. ![]()
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