How would you feel about picking up your weekly groceries from a physical Amazon store in the future? The tech giant already owns Whole Foods in the US but is now being tipped to open its own line of stores, perhaps as early as this year.
The report comes from "people familiar with the matter" speaking to the Wall Street Journal, so don't take it as a given just yet – but the WSJ does have a solid record when it comes to these sort of scoops.
Apparently the new stores will differ from Whole Foods by stocking a different mix of products at lower price points, including groceries and health and beauty products. A pick up service will be available too.
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According to the WSJ, the first store could open in LA before the end of this year, with more locations following – San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Washington DC and Philadelphia are the other US cities that have been mooted.
Don't stop shopping
The WSJ report also reveals that the sites would be around half the size of a standard grocery store in the US, and that Amazon might consider acquiring another company to help build up the number of stores.
It's not clear whether the initiative will expand to other countries at the moment, or if the proposed stores are going to carry Amazon branding. The company has already experimented with a few Amazon Go automated convenience stores already.
Whether or not we'll see the same kind of automated checkout system that the Amazon Go stores use in these new grocery locations is also something that remains to be seen. All we know for sure is that Amazon is keen to sell you as much stuff as it possibly can.
As is the norm, Amazon has refused to comment on the report, except to say it doesn't comment on rumors or speculation. Watch this space for some Amazon grocery spaces appearing in the next few months.
Via TechCrunch
