Amazon is preparing to open its first Amazon Fresh supermarkets in New York and New Jersey. With the opening date still unannounced, the first Amazon Fresh location in the Empire State will be in Oceanside in a former Waldbaum’s Supermarket space at 3620 Long Beach Road while the New Jersey location will occupy a former Fairway Market space at 30 E. Ridgewood Avenue in Paramus – set to open this summer. Both locations intend on creating jobs and boosting the local economy by filling “hundreds” of full- and part-time positions. Amazon Fresh started as an online grocery delivery service prior to occupying physical locations, with the first stores opening in Woodland Hills and Irvine, California.
Today, there are over 30 Amazon Fresh stores, and that number is rapidly growing. Amazon Fresh stores feature “dash carts,” which automatically scan items and the company’s “Just Walk Out” technology that enables customers to pay for their items without waiting in a checkout line. The technology uses “overhead computer-vision cameras, weight sensors and deep-learning technology to detect merchandise that shoppers take from or return to shelves and track items selected in a virtual cart”. Customers also have the option to use traditional checkout and self-checkout lanes. The stores offer a full shopping experience including produce, meat, and seafood, as well as prepared foods made fresh in store, daily.
