Dive Brief:
- Amazon opened its third suburban Amazon Go in the Seattle suburbs and sixth overall in the U.S. on Tuesday, according to a company press release.
- The store, at 15518 Meridian Ave East in Puyallup, Washington, includes Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, which allows customers to scan a payment method or app at the entrance, then pick up whatever items they want and leave. They will be automatically billed, with a digital receipt sent to them later.
- Amazon has scaled back its brick-and-mortar operations over the past year, as it closed nearly a third of its Amazon Go locations and halted the rollout of its Amazon Fresh grocery stores. However, this opening proves that it hasn’t given up on physical retail locations.
Dive Insight:
This is the first new Amazon Go site since March, when the e-commerce and retailing giant opened its second suburban site in Seattle and first in Puyallup. The first suburban store in Washington opened in Mill Creek in 2022. The other three suburban Amazon Go’s can be found in Whittier, Torrance, and Woodland Hills, California.
The suburban sites are larger than Amazon Go’s urban format, and usually offer a fresh food menu. The Mill Creek location debuted Amazon Go’s first made-to-order kitchen.
The new Puyallup store floor stands at about 2,000 square feet and features a variety of home, health, pet and auto items along with a made-to-order kitchen. The customizable fresh-foods menu has more than 35 items, includes breakfast sandwiches, hot and cold deli sandwiches and burritos and wraps. Dispensed beverage offerings include Starbucks coffee, Coca-Cola fountain drinks and Icee frozen drinks. It also carries products from local companies like Alki Bakery, Macrina Bakery, Reuben’s Brews, Georgetown Brewing, Stoup Brewing and Gilbert Cellars.
The site also allows Amazon returns and includes lockers on site for Amazon order pickups.
Customers can enter the store using Amazon One, the company’s palm-scanning technology, or by using a credit card or putting the store code into the Amazon app, a spokesperson said in an email.
While the store opened on Sept. 26, the grand opening is scheduled for Oct. 20 and 21. As part of the celebration, customers will get 10% off all purchases through Oct. 29, along with $3 breakfast sandwiches and $5 sandwiches through the end of the year.
While some c-store retailers have piloted frictionless checkout, the technology has also found a home in arenas, where lines can get onerous and cause people to miss significant parts of the game or concert they paid to see. University campuses are also beginning to try the tech.
Amazon has expanded into both areas. It opened four Just Walk Out-powered campus stores this year and grew the number of stores it operates in Seattle’s T-Mobile Park from one to four.
As it resumes its suburban expansion under the Go brand, Amazon is also taking steps to update its Amazon Fresh grocery brand. The company recently revamped two stores in the Chicago area, including introducing in-store Krispy Kreme donut shops, and also added new features to its online Fresh service.
