Exclusive Access: A Look Inside Amazon Fresh
Last month we revealed that Amazon Fresh, the first brick-and-mortar of its kind, was slated to open to the general public in the very near future.
Well wait no further – the new concept, which is located in Los Angeles’ Woodland Hills neighborhood, features smart carts, Alexa guides, and challenges for traditional grocery stores and big-box retailers. Most importantly, it’s now available to all. That is, if you live on the west coast.
Fortunately, close friends of Tech Square ATL Social Club, Charleen Madrona and Cyrine Madrona, gave us an exclusive look into the tech-centric shopping experience.
Immediately upon arriving, they were given a Dash Cart, which came equipped with a bag inside (for scanning the items) and a quick, five-slide tutorial on how to best navigate the new technology.
The next stop: testing the “Ask Alexa” feature, of course. These voice-activated Echo Show smart displays are where customers can ask Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant for item location help or dinner suggestions.
And it worked like a charm!
Charleen also showcased how the Dash Cart scanning feature works. Here, she puts some milk in her cart.
Ta-da!
And finally, after strolling around a bit, comes the grand finale, the separate check-out lanes – one for “standard” carts and one for Dash Carts.
And since we couldn’t experience such a novelty ourselves, we asked Charleen a few questions on her overall experience:
Q: What did you expect your shopping experience to be like?
A: I wasn't sure what to expect. I remember seeing a video on the internet about Amazon's first attempt at a cashierless grocery store awhile back. I never looked into it, [but] as I was driving around my neighborhood [I] saw the beginning construction and thought "Oh hey, it's going to be here? I'll have to check it out!" I vaguely remembered the video, but I guess I was expecting no human interaction or employees while shopping – [which wasn’t the case].
Q: Was your overall experience as you expected, or different?
A: As it is [still] a prototype, I was [surprised] to see Amazon Fresh employees that made it easy to [use the] Dash Carts. My friend and I weren't sure how to navigate through the store or knew that they offered regular carts [versus smart carts], so we were happy with having employees walk us through the process.
I did have the expectation of not having to go [to] a cashier to check out, and it was really cool to see items being scanned as we dropped them into the Dash Cart.
The store is set up like Whole Foods with its same brands and grab-and-go meals, which was to be expected since they are under the same company.
Q: Is shopping at Amazon Fresh more convenient for you, or less? Will you continue to shop there?
A: I don't know if it is more convenient for me, because I like to shop when it's not so busy anyways, and I work [the] night shift three days a week, so my schedule always varies unlike a usual 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. [schedule].
Her thoughts on this new type of tech-driven entity really has given us something to sink our teeth in, but her opinion around the convenience factor for small-item trips couldn’t be more spot-on! Amazon has reported before that the Dash Carts in particular are “designed for small- to mid-sized grocery trips, where shoppers might leave the store with one or two bags.”
Regardless of your shopping habits and needs, it’s still fair to say that this new world of tech immersed in an industry like grocery stores is quite exciting. Here’s to hoping they start to expand to the A in the near future!
Would shopping at an Amazon Fresh store be of interest to you? Why or why not? Let us know in the comments below.