The first San Diego location of the technologically-advanced Amazon Fresh grocery store is "delayed indefinitely."
Amazon Fresh is an ultra-modern marketplace with no checkout required, with the first location opened as Amazon Go in 2017 in the company's home city of Seattle, WA. At Amazon Fresh grocery store, there are no checkout lines. Rather, customers use a "smart" shopping cart called the Amazon Dash Cart, which helps customers find products, automatically identifies items placed in the cart, keeps a running tally of products, and allows patrons to leave without the need to pay on the spot. The checkout-free shopping experience is made possible by similar technologies used in self-driving cars. Shoppers merely walk through a special Dash Cart lane, where sensors identify the cart and the items selected, and the transaction is processed using the credit card on file under their Amazon account. Same-day grocery delivery and pickup also are offered directly from Amazon Fresh stores, and customers can obtain their orders at an onsite service counter or at a designated pickup parking spot.
The e-commerce behemoth had plans to open the first San Diego branch of Amazon Fresh grocery store at the former site of Atlas Market within Twin Peaks Plaza shopping center in Poway. The signage has been up at the nearly 45,000 square-foot space for months, but the City of Poway has announced that nearly eight months after signing off on the project, an Amazon corporate representative has confirmed the store opening has been delayed indefinitely. There is no word on the reason behind the delay or a timeline for when the project will resume. We reached out to Amazon PR directly for more information, and Public Relations Manager Jessica Martin responded stating the company declines to provide comment.
There are currently 29 Amazon Fresh supermarkets in six states, including 13 in California, seven in Illinois, four in Washington, two in Virginia, and one in each Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C.. New Amazon Fresh locations are also planned for California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington state, New Jersey, and New York.
Amazon Fresh Grocery Store was expected to open this year at 14837 Pomerado Road in San Diego's North County city of Poway.
