Amazon Go expands suburban format in Los Angeles
Amazon Go is focusing on the Greater Los Angeles area as a center of suburban growth.
Amazon has been broadening the portfolio of its Amazon Go checkout-free convenience concept with a new format for suburban locations. The new format, which is still called Amazon Go, was initially announced in January 2022 and debuted in Mill Creek, Wash., in April 2022. In September 2022, Amazon Go opened a location in Whittier, Calif. – which is part of the Greater Los Angeles area.
On Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022, Amazon Go is opening its second store in the Los Angeles area in Torrance, Calif. The total square footage of the Torrance store is approximately 6,100 sq. ft., with front-of-house measuring approximately 2,850 sq. ft.
The new Amazon Go location features Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” technology, and is designed to offer customers a quick shopping experience to pick up grab-and-go food, snacks and beverage items and a few everyday essentials.
The retailer’s Just Walk Out technology leverages a combination of computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning that enables shoppers to shop the store, pick out what they want and skip the checkout when they’re done. When shoppers arrive, they open the Amazon app, tap “In-Store Code,” and scan in with the QR code presented.
The new Amazon Go also offers an expanded selection of grab-and-go food and beverage items, including a broader range of beer and wine, and everyday essential items. It also features a new made-to-order kitchen, which offers freshly prepared, customizable breakfast and lunch items. Specific made-to-order kitchen items include breakfast bowls, sandwiches and burritos, hot and cold deli sandwiches, salads, and wraps.
In further Los Angeles expansion plans, Amazon Go will soon open a third suburban format store in the area, in Woodland Hills. The store will measure approximately 5,000 square feet. Front-of-house will measure approximately 2,400 square feet.
Amazon Go pursues zero carbon certification
Amazon is seeking Zero Carbon Certification with the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) for the Amazon Go stores located in Whittier, Torrance, and Woodland Hills, Calif. These stores have incorporated upgrades that help lower energy use and minimize operational carbon footprint, including an all-electric kitchen, water heating and heat pumps for heating and cooling our stores, with no onsite natural gas combustion.
These stores also reduce refrigeration system energy usage by utilizing doored walk-in coolers and freezers to support most of our customer-facing chilled food offerings and use high-efficiency LED lighting throughout the stores.
According to Amazon, implementing upgrades at these three Amazon Go stores will save a combined total of approximately 32 tons of CO2 each year, equivalent to six gas-powered cars driven for one year.
The omnichannel giant is also seeking ILFI zero carbon certification for a same-day fulfillment center in Sacramento, Calif., an Amazon Fresh grocery store in the Seattle area and has achieved the recognition for its Climate Pledge Arena, also in Seattle.
Amazon Go – a brief history
Amazon opened the first Amazon Go in January 2018, in Seattle. The concept has since expanded to 28 locations across the United States, including two “Starbucks Pickup with Amazon Go” locations jointly operated with Starbucks in mid-town Manhattan. In addition, Amazon debuted Amazon Go Grocery, since rebranded to Amazon Fresh, in February 2020; and also operates an Amazon Fresh grocery store in the Ealing section of London.
Beyond Amazon Go, Amazon has been busy developing store formats that leverage its Just Walk Out frictionless shopping platform. In August 2020, Amazon introduced a checkout-free grocery format called Amazon Fresh. The company designed the format from the ground up to offer a seamless shopping experience with extra perks for members of the Amazon Prime paid loyalty program.
Amazon now operates 44 Amazon Fresh stores across the U.S., including 18 in California, nine in Illinois, five in Washington State, five in Virginia, two each in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and one each in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.
In addition to being offered at Amazon Go convenience stores and Amazon Fresh grocery stores, Just Walk Out has also been licensed to other third-party retailers.