By contrast, Amazon Fresh is clearly aimed at middle-income shoppers who still want to do some of their purchasing and browsing in person instead of on a computer screen. And half of the new store’s appeal is reasonable pricing - that’s the single biggest problem with Whole Foods, which offers well-heeled customers an impressive selection of high-end foods and beverages that just aren’t affordable to the masses. Lower labor costs could translate directly into lower prices. ![]() But at Amazon Fresh, Alexa could help reduce the need for greeters as customers become familiar with the technology, and shelving recalibrations could reduce the need for such frequent stock replenishment. In traditional supermarkets, all of these employees might be floaters who move from place to place as needed, alternating between helping customers and restocking shelves. 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. The company's mix of grocery offerings grew increasingly complex once it launched a line of Go cashierless stores and a Fresh supermarket chain aimed at conventional shoppers.Register Now A boxy, spartan layout, seemingly by design It made a historic splash when it acquired upscale grocer Whole Foods Market in 2017 for $13.7 billion, Amazon's biggest acquisition ever. Amazon has 44 Fresh stores in eight states and Washington, D.C., according to its websiteįresh employees affected by the layoffs can look for new roles within the company or accept a severance payment, Amazon said.Īmazon has been determined to crack the grocery segment since the launch of its Fresh delivery service in 2007. Hundreds of staffers were let go as a result of the cuts, The Washington Post reported earlier. "As a result, we've decided to evolve our in-store staffing and operations model to better serve our customers and teams." ![]() "Like any retailer, we periodically assess our stores' organizational needs and make decisions to increase efficiencies for our employees and deliver customer value," Jessica Martin, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
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