Amazon closes Prime Pantry https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... initiative

Amazon Fresh, the online shopping behemoth’s high-tech grocery store, plans to open its second location in the Chicago area next week. The 45,000-square-foot store will open Thursday at 16 E. Golf Road in Schaumburg, in a former Babies R Us space, Amazon said Friday.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... 7#nws=true

Amazon Fresh opened Thursday in Oak Lawn, the third Chicago suburb in the past two months to launch the new grocery concept from the e-commerce giant.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... 0#nws=true

If you read World-Wide Web sites like Block Club Chicago, you may know that there are locations in Chicago which the local population suspects will become an Amazon Fresh store, which is being shielded by a non-disclosure agreement, and are opposed to this.
This is an issue on which I vacillate. On one side, I am not keen on large corporations becoming so large that they cannot be reduced or replaced without causing financial damage. I have reservations about Walmart, Sam's Club, Costco, Whole Foods, and Amazon becoming more vast.
On the other side, I wonder what corporation could gain the support of a community to occupy an address. Vacant lots do not support any community.

As reported in Nadig, Amazon Fresh appears to be one of the likely tenants at the location of the the former Norridge KMart...
http://nadignewspapers.com/2021/02/10/s ... ht-lipped/

That Nadig story also mentions a new Caputo's Fresh Market at 4400 N Harlem. Do they mean an Angelo Caputo's or something different? The new location is pretty close to the Angelo Caputo's in Elmwood Park.

Amazon Fresh opened in Bloomingdale on Thursday, the high-tech grocery chain’s fourth location in the Chicago area. The 40,000-square-foot-store, at 404 Army Trail Road.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html

An Amazon Fresh store is planned for Morton Grove’s Sawmill Station shopping center, and will give the village its first full-service grocer since Dominick’s closed more than eight years ago.

An Amazon spokeswoman confirmed in an e-mail to Pioneer Press/Chicago Tribune Media Group that the online retail giant plans to open its fifth Chicago-area Fresh grocery store at the shopping center, located at the southeast corner of Dempster Street and Waukegan Road.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ ... story.html

The Amazon Fresh location at Dempster and Waukegan is inching closer to opening. Signage is up.

Amazon Fresh coming to Lincolnwood’s Purple Hotel site.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ ... story.html

Giovanna wrote:

tcdup wrote:I went to the new Amazon Fresh in south Naperville the other day. It's in a space that is maybe half of an old Dominick's. It's a strange kind of hybrid store.
...

According to an article I read, they are targeting Aldi and Trader Joe shoppers, specifically higher-income people who shop at those stores but who think Whole Foods is too expensive. Shoppers looking for value but who won't shop at Wal-Mart. The 70% of Prime members who don't shop at Whole Foods.

I don't know if you could do your entire shopping there. As I said, sort of a weird niche.

Amazon Fresh
3116 Rte 59
Naperville

Thanks for this interesting info. Rumor has it that the grocery store that will open in the new mall at Dempster and Waukegan in Morton Grove will be an Amazon Fresh. The footprint of the store sounds right.

I do most of my shopping at either of the Fresh Farms in Niles. Amazon Fresh sound perfect for me when all I need is milk, bananas, and a couple of avocados. There's no place near me in Morton Grove to do a quick shop like that.

Wouldn't want to do my entire shopping at Aldi or Trader Joe's either, but I do go there.

Giovanna

Morton Grove is opening next week = https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html

Trib says a new Amazon Fresh grocery store opened Thursday in Wesmont, the fifth in Illinois and "the third nationwide to use the 'just walk out' technology" where cameras and other sensors track what customers pick up and add them to a virtual shopping cart. Has anyone been to the new store yet?

They also say that another new Amazon Fresh store in Morton Grove will open next week with that same technology. This is the store that is located where a defunct Dominic's used to be, back in the day, in what is now called Sawmill shopping center, southeast corner of Waukegan Road at Dempster in Niles. They have done a nice job of freshening up that shopping area. There is a new Cooper's Hawk restaurant that is already up and running and a big condo complex at the south end that is under construction.

ooops! I see someone beat me to it!

Joy wrote:They also say that another new Amazon Fresh store in Morton Grove will open next week with that same technology. This is the store that is located where a defunct Dominic's used to be, back in the day, in what is now called Sawmill shopping center, southeast corner of Waukegan Road at Dempster in Niles.

Just to note, the entire center was torn down and rebuilt, I don't think there are any previous buildings still in use.

Amazon wasn't one of the original signed tenants - a movie theater complex pulled out early in the pandemic.

The question which still looms large in the neighborhoods where Amazon might be negotiating to open an outlet is whether it would disrupt brick-&-mortar stores [Tony's, Jewel-Osco, Cermak Produce, ~ I'm missing a bunch of Latinx grocers ] also present.
The location around Irving Park, Lincoln, and Damen has been mentioned previously in LTHF. But nothing recently. Is Amazon waiting for the heat to die down before stating it will occupy what is being constructed there?
Let me state for the record: Non-disclosure agreements are decidedly hostile to the general populace. I will go as far as endorsing leaks of those agreements in order to let the community know what is being planned.

These are no where near where I shop, so it won't be an issue. However, I'm not sure I would be willing to trust this system. Did I get the sale price, etc.

lougord99 wrote:These are no where near where I shop, so it won't be an issue. However, I'm not sure I would be willing to trust this system. Did I get the sale price, etc.

They're way ahead of you on technology. I've had an Amazon go near my office in the loop for a few years. Works like a charm. Scan yourself as you enter, pull any items off the shelf and walk out. A receipt is sent pretty much immediately. If you return an item to the shelf then it's automatically removed from your virtual basket. Not sure how it works if you randomly eject an item in a different section, but the rule-abider in me says you should suffer the consequences (but they likely have a way to deal with it).

I would be skeptical if I hadn't already been using the system a couple of times a month for a few years. Works surprisingly well.

Thanks.

Good to know.

The Amazon Fresh store at Sawmill in Morton Grove opened today. It seems everyone in the immediate vicinity was sent a big green postcard in the mail announcing the opening and dangling some enticements.

We did not make the 7:00 a.m. opening. Had we been one of the first 250 people in line (must be in line before store opening!) in the chilly morning misty rain, we would have been handed a “randomly selected Amazon Gift Card” with a value of $5, $10, $20 or $100. Everyone else holding the magic green postcard got $10 off when they spent $20. Or $20 off if you spent $50. This is good until Nov. 21.

We were there around 2 p.m. The parking lot was absolutely packed. The store was a zoo with people bumping into each other. The aisles seemed too small but maybe it was just the mob.

It is a very nice smallish store that would answer the call if you were in the middle of making dinner and didn’t have that one ingredient. You could dash in, grab and go. Fresh meats, a smallish butcher / fish and seafood counter. A larger section with fresh fruits and veggies. Bt if you looked closely at all the offerings, there were always also pre-prepped options: bags of chopped veg, salads and fruits but also prepared main dishes and heat-and-eat stuff.

A “kitchen” is struggling to get up and running offering nice looking but pricey sub sammies, slices of thin crust pizzas, hot foods in a sort of cafeteria looking set-up, a nice-sized sushi station with at least ten people working when we were there, etc. The bakery section will surely fill out their shelves soon. Big case of cold bottled and canned drinks including my favorite kombucha. You could get a really fast lunch or dinner if time was short.

Aisles with all the pantry stuff from snacks to pastas and sauces to soft drinks, salad dressings, all sorts of bottled sauces... it was very nicely done and if you couldn’t find your exact brand, you’d probably at least find a fair substitute.

The only thing that is disturbing is that when you 'check out,' you do not know how much you spent or if the seeing eye in the sky counted those three bananas accurately. And three hours after leaving the store, we still did not receive the receipt which is supposed to appear in our cell phone Amazon app. I am a receipt scrutinizer and have caught many errors in other stores. It irks me not to know the details.

But who knows? Maybe the robot overlords in the ceiling of the store have everything under control. Maybe I can learn to love Big Brother! hahahaha

Bu the way, there are small stations where you can walk up and "ask Alexa" where something is.

Joy wrote:The Amazon Fresh store at Sawmill in Morton Grove opened today. It seems everyone in the immediate vicinity was sent a big green postcard in the mail announcing the opening and dangling some enticements.

In the sales flyer for the Morton Grove grand opening they have a good deal $10 off a $20 purchase. Also all of Amazon branded 'Aplenty' products like BBQ sauce, Mustard, beans, frozen deserts, chips, cookies, etc.. are 50% off. So a BBQ sauce from Aplenty brand was like $1.25 and Dijon Mustard also around the same price.

Joy wrote:The only thing that is disturbing is that when you 'check out,' you do not know how much you spent or if the seeing eye in the sky counted those three bananas accurately. And three hours after leaving the store, we still did not receive the receipt which is supposed to appear in our cell phone Amazon app. I am a receipt scrutinizer and have caught many errors in other stores. It irks me not to know the details.

Can't help but think it's an opening day (week? month?) issue. The Amazon Go that I frequent has my receipt ready within a minute of exiting. Now it's a smaller store with far fewer customers/transactions but either the tech works or it doesn't. If this lag persists then it's a worry. In the meantime:

https://www.amazon.com/receipts

We did get our receipt of course and we're sure the late arrival glitch can be attributed to opening night jitters.

But we did notice we were charged for two raspberries when we only bought one. We did buy strawberries but were not charged for them. The difference in price was quite small and in our favor so no harm.

When you enter one of these stores, look up at the ceiling! Those are all the watchful sensors keeping track of you. Now I know they are not absolutely full proof.

Chicago’s competitive online grocery scene to get another player with California-based startup Farmstead.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business ... story.html

It's official: Signs go up for new Amazon Fresh grocery store in Arlington Heights.
https://www.dailyherald.com/business/20 ... on-heights

Ordered 10 or 11 items from Amazon fresh. Of the 3/12 packs of soda one was the wrong type. Bread seems slightly stale. Lunch meat was the wrong type. At least the planters honey roasted peanuts were spot on.

Mainly I ordered delivery so I wouldn’t have to carry a couple cases of water to and fro the car.

Delivery was on time, prices were sort of reasonable. The driver, though he didn’t speak English, was friendly and efficient.

Amazon fresh delivery is not high on my list of things to do again.