'If you build it they will come': Amazon takes on the corner store for commuters and convenience
The $397b internet retailer Amazon is undertaking a brick and mortar venture that will feature a chain of stores and drive-through locations where customers can pick up groceries ordered online, according to a report today in the Guardian.
The 'corner store' envisioned by Amazon will feature essentials like milk, meat, bread and orange juice that will offer commuters a pick up location for pre-ordered groceries.
The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday reported that the designers of the new stores, which are said to be code-named “Project Como,” are emulating the style of from budget chains Aldi and Lidl and will be sparsely stocked with mainly perishable items that customers have likely ordered earlier in the day for pickup via their smartphones.
Amazon refused to comment on the speculation surrounding the new stores, which would follow the Seattle-based company’s launch of a physical bookshop in its home town last year. Bookshops are also slated to open in San Diego, New York, Portland and Chicago.
The company, founded by multibillonaire Jeff Bezos in 1994, is modeling the stores on its fresh food delivery service that began in densely populated cities in 2007. It has also begun offering grocery deliveries to homes in parts of north and east London the Guardian newspaper reports. The British service is offered to Amazon Prime members in 69 postcodes for an additional £6.99 ($8.50) a month.
Amazon collected annual sales of $107bn last year, more than double the amount it generated just four years earlier. Its net income totaled $596m.
While the company said “we don’t comment on rumors or speculations”, planning documents and building materials labeled “Amazon” at a construction site in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood appear to indicate that construction of the first store is well under way. Planning documents seen by technology site GeekWire stated: “Storage racks insulation plans on main floor for Amazon.”
It has been reported that the physical stores will be for the exclusive use of customers signed up to Amazon Fresh food delivery service, which is available for $15 a month on top of Amazon Prime’s $99 annual fee.
The company, which has been offering its Fresh service in some densely populated parts of the US since 2007, has been expanding the grocery delivery service rapidly, recently adding new cities across the US. It is now available in Seattle, New York, Washington, Boston, northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Stamford, Baltimore and large parts of California.