Amazon has expanded its grocery footprint in Southern California with a new Amazon Fresh market in Porter Ranch.
The 30,000-square-foot store at 19340 Rinaldi St. is the e-commerce giant’s third in the region. The others are in Woodland Hills and Irvine. The Porter Ranch location replaces a former Whole Foods Market, also owned by Amazon.
Amazon Fresh touts itself as a “seamless experience” for customers, whether they’re shopping in-store or online.
High-tech Dash Carts
The supermarkets offer free same-day delivery and pick-up for Amazon Prime members and they also feature Amazon Dash Carts equipped with digital panels that allow shoppers to sign in using a QR code from their Amazon app.
Items are automatically tallied when customers place them inside the carts. When they exit the store, purchases are charged to whichever debit or credit card is attached to their Amazon app.
Shoppers can find store items quickly by using Alexa, a virtual assistant, using voice-activated Echo Show devices throughout the store.
“The cart uses a combination of computer vision algorithms and sensor fusion to identify items put in the cart,” Jeff Helbling, vice president of Amazon Fresh Stores, said in a recent blog posting. “It’s a smart cart that helps make your grocery shop quicker by enabling you to skip the checkout line.”
A broad selection
Amazon Fresh carries a broad selection of produce, meat and seafood, baked goods and prepared foods made daily at the store, including made-to-order pizzas, rotisserie chickens and hot sandwiches.
The stores also offer 365 by Whole Foods Market organics, along with national brands like Coca-Cola and Kraft Mac and Cheese and local brands including American Golden Nuts and Groundwork Coffee. Regional favorites, like Duke’s Mayo and Ellenos Yogurt, also figure into the mix, as well as Amazon exclusive brands like Fresh and Cursive.
The company also touts the store’s low-priced items, including 15-cent bananas; fresh bread at 89 cents per loaf, pizza slices for $1.79 and rotisserie chickens for $4.97.
The Porter Ranch store will employ “hundreds of workers,” according to an Amazon spokesperson. The starting wage for Amazon Fresh employees is $15.35 and all full- and part-time roles come with a variety of benefits packages, the company said.
Other Amazon Fresh locations
- 6245 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Woodland Hills
- 13672 Jamboree Road., Irvine
Bob Phibbs, CEO of The Retail Doctor, a New York-based retail consulting firm, figures Amazon has a built-in advantage for new retail concepts.
“You have to remember that they are a technology company first,” Phibbs said recently. “They know their audience and they have all the data to connect the dots. They even know what kind of device you’re buying products on.”
Amazon says it requires face coverings and daily temperature checks for all employees and vendors entering the store, and shoppers are also required to wear face coverings. Free, disposable face masks are available for customers and Amazon Fresh stores are currently operating at 50% capacity, the company said.
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