Amazon Advances Grocery Store Plans

With an increasing focus on a brick-and-mortar presence, Amazon is advancing a plan to open a chain of U.S. grocery stores with locations in Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. The company has inked over one dozen leases in the Los Angeles area, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. 

It is likely that the first couple of locations will be in the dense suburban Los Angeles locales of Studio City and Woodland Hills, with another reportedly planned for Irvine in Orange County. Those locations could open as soon as the end of 2019. 

The eCommerce retailer is also reportedly eyeing grocery spaces in New Jersey, Connecticut and the New York metro region. Many of those places are in open-air shopping centers as well as strip mall centers and would occupy roughly 20,000 to 40,000 square feet, per the unnamed sources.

The company has 16 Amazon Go stores where shoppers can pick up grocery purchases and ready-to-eat food checkout-free. In addition, the company has four Amazon 4-star stores that have products rated 4 stars and higher on the Amazon site and 18 Amazon Books stores.

Revenue from the brick-and-mortar businesses is small but still on the uptick. The report noted that net sales from Amazon’s physical stores increased 1 percent to $4.3 billion from a year prior.

That was compared to 16 percent growth notched in its online stores per Amazon’s earnings statement, as cited by the report. Physical store sales exclude purchases made through the web and purchased at a store but include products shoppers choose in the store.

In separate Amazon brick-and-mortar news, the eCommerce retailer reportedly wants to bring its cashierless Go technology to other locations such as movie theaters and airport stores to expand its reach and potentially win more cloud customers.

The eCommerce giant has reportedly been talking to OTG’s CIBO Express stores at airports and Cineworld’s Regal Theatres. It’s also eyeing the potential to bring the technology to concession stands at baseball games.