Amazon Fresh grocery store opens at Irvine Market Place

[eyephone]

What has significantly change with Whole Foods after Amazon bought them? Amazon locker outside?

I can buy groceries from Whole Foods (via Amazon.com) and get them delivered to my home. It might have always been an option but I'm not sure.

But you can do that with other grocery stores. (delivery option)

I remember there was a pizza deal at Whole Foods for Amazon Prime members. But that is a one off. I am looking for something that is game changing. For example when Apple went to retail the stores were always packed like a club.

 

[iacrenter]

There is a lot of opportunity for market penetration and Amazon has deep pockets to figure this out. They have market cap of $1.5 trillion and their 2019 R&D budget was equal to the market cap of Kroger and Albertson combined ($32 billion). It controlled almost 30% of online grocery sales in 2018, but only had a 3% grocery market share. And despite the pandemic significantly increasing the % of consumers who shop online, the majority buy grocerries at brick and mortar locations.

Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh locations have several benefits: Facilitating home delivery of online orders, allow pickup for Prime Members, cementing Prime Member loyalty with shopping discounts and cash back deals with their credit card, driving foot traffic with Amazon lockers, and increased brand recognition/PR in the grocery space.

 

[eyephone]

We all know that what you stated. But what is the wow factor that will make a person go there? (For example: Apple has the products, classes, and really friendly service.)
I will be the first to say it. Amazon should have not bought Whole Foods. They might have good margins, but I think the foot traffic is less than the other stores.
News flash: they have lockers at some 7-11 locations. They did not have to buy Whole Foods for that. I dont want to say it, but the groceries are over priced at Whole Foods.

Despite Amazon controlling almost 30% of the online grocery sales in 2018, it only has a 3% overall grocery market share. And despite the pandemic significantly increasing the % of consumers who shop online, the majority buy grocerries at brick and mortar locations. Amazon's purchase of Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh locations have several benefits: Facilitating home delivery of online orders, allow pickup for Prime Members, cementing Prime Member loyalty with shopping discounts and cash back deals with their credit card, driving foot traffic with Amazon lockers, and increased brand recognition/PR in the grocery space.

There is a lot of opportunity for market penetration and Amazon has deep pockets to figure this out. They have market cap of $1.5 trillion and their 2019 R&D budget was equal to the market cap of Kroger and Albertson combined ($32 billion).

 

[irvinehomeowner]

It's going to be an evolution/revolution.

Just like Amazon started selling books and everyone was "How are they different?". Now look at them. Where is Borders? Where is Circuit City? Where are the department stores?

I do a majority of my gadget/whatever shopping on Amazon (Prime) and during the early days of the 'Vid, did some shopping on Fresh because grocery stores were frequently out of stock on things... and shopping online was "safer".

Sure, they may never replace being able to buy korean BBQ from H-Mart... but maybe one day they will.

Edit: Grammatical

 

[eyephone]

Amazon bought Whole Foods for around 13.7 billion in cash. Maybe Amazon could of spent that money  on something else. Whole Foods should of took Amazon stock instead of cash. (I am not sure if that was on the table. But I guess that is a different topic.)

It has been around 3 years and I do not see a big change. (the prime feature is like an rewards program.) In my humble opinion, I think the employees were more friendlier before the acquisition. idk

The guardian: Whole Foods workers say conditions deteriorated after Amazon takeoverhttps://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/jul/16/whole-foods-amazon-prime-working-conditions

 

[qwerty]

It?s part of their overall plan to build loyalty and keep you in the Amazon ecosystem. Amazon is in your house with Alexa and security systems, Alexa is your car, they already deliver consumer products to your house, now groceries (in person or delivered), Amazon music, Prime video, now they deliver medicine. Nothing they do is proprietary and with their loyalty programs/benefits, speed of delivery, people will just spend their money with Amazon.

In general, I don?t think Amazon is trying to provide a game changer in anything they do. Most of the stuff they do someone else already does. Amazon just brings everything together under one company/umbrella.

I?m going to go buy more Amazon stock now.

 

[eyephone]

It%u2019s part of their overall plan to build loyalty and keep you in the Amazon ecosystem. Amazon is in your house with Alexa and security systems, Alexa is your car, they already deliver consumer products to your house, now groceries (in person or delivered), Amazon music, Prime video, now they deliver medicine. Nothing they do is proprietary and with their loyalty programs/benefits, speed of delivery, people will just spend their money with Amazon.

In general, I don%u2019t think Amazon is trying to provide a game changer in anything they do. Most of the stuff they do someone else already does. Amazon just brings everything together under one company/umbrella.

I%u2019m going to go buy more Amazon stock now.

I disagree they are not looking for a game changer. They bought ring which was like #1 diy alarm. They could of bought a small alarm company.
The Whole Foods acquisition failed expectations.
So the argument to expand the eco system is flawed. For example a typical person who buys electronics from Amazon does not necessarily buys from Whole Foods. As I stated before, consumer habits are about paying fair price or finding deals. Sorry to say but Whole Foods does not scream fair price.

I think a person would prefer to go to TJ vs Whole Foods. But what do I know.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

It?s part of their overall plan to build loyalty and keep you in the Amazon ecosystem. Amazon is in your house with Alexa and security systems, Alexa is your car, they already deliver consumer products to your house, now groceries (in person or delivered), Amazon music, Prime video, now they deliver medicine. Nothing they do is proprietary and with their loyalty programs/benefits, speed of delivery, people will just spend their money with Amazon.

In general, I don?t think Amazon is trying to provide a game changer in anything they do. Most of the stuff they do someone else already does. Amazon just brings everything together under one company/umbrella.

I?m going to go buy more Amazon stock now.

I disagree they are not looking for a game changer. They bought ring which was like #1 diy alarm. They could of bought a small alarm company.
The Whole Foods acquisition failed expectations.
So the argument to expand the eco system is flawed. For example a typical person who buys on electronics Amazon does not necessarily buys from Whole Foods. As I stated before, consumer habits are about paying fair price or finding deals. Sorry to say but Whole Foods does not scream fair price.

I think a person would prefer to go to TJ vs Whole Foods. But what do I know.

There is definitely an ecosystem motive at play...Amazon just got into the drug store business as well.  I question its effectiveness...I think the grocery play is weird.

Amazon's base business also starting to lose its luster...Walmart, Target, and Best Buys are all chipping at the marketplace business.  Amazon is like Google...just looking for new place to expand.

 

[iacrenter]

There is definitely an ecosystem motive at play...Amazon just got into the drug store business as well.  I question its effectiveness...I think the grocery play is weird.

Amazon's base business also starting to lose its luster...Walmart, Target, and Best Buys are all chipping at the marketplace business.  Amazon is like Google...just looking for new place to expand.

Amazon is picking areas ripe for disruption: grocery sales are $600 billion+ and prescription drugs are $300 billion+. Both areas are dominated by brick and mortar.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

There is definitely an ecosystem motive at play...Amazon just got into the drug store business as well.  I question its effectiveness...I think the grocery play is weird.

Amazon's base business also starting to lose its luster...Walmart, Target, and Best Buys are all chipping at the marketplace business.  Amazon is like Google...just looking for new place to expand.

Amazon is picking areas ripe for disruption: grocery sales are $600 billion+ and prescription drugs are $300 billion+. Both areas are dominated by brick and mortar.

Except grocery sales are extremely thin margins and there are already online prescription drugs outlets.

My guess is that Amazon thinks that it can streamline the process and reduce cost to increase the margins but not sure it works that way.  Maybe but we shall see.

in reality...it's all about the data...Amazon wants more data to sell and things like Ring, groceries, and drugs are all extra data that other competitors may not have. 
https://thecounter.org/amazon-a-whole-foods-growth-profit/

 

[Bullsback]

Just like solar... eye will eventually buy in to Amazon Fresh.

Can a person with a family that cooks at home do all their grocery shopping at the new Amazon place?

It isn't super fancy - but it has a normal selection of a grocery store. This isn't like a trader joes we are talking about that has select items and you still need to go to a Ralphs or Albertsons or whatever. This is much closer to an Alberton's.  Some limitations - smaller deli and I thought a little less of a meat market than most of the big box Irvine stores. 

But this is the only store where you can actually pay the same price to get groceries delivered to your house as you do in store. I think everywhere else you pay a premium. I haven't actually done the order - but I think I've seen people on here say that. To me that is a game changer. I had no desire to pay a 10%+ mark-up to order my groceries online and do all that...if it is the same price and same day delivery (I suppose it is still a bit higher cause you got to put in tip - but those other places all have mark-up plus tip)....well now maybe it isn't so bad. 

Prices were okay.  It isn't my go to grocery store and probably won't ever become it - but it would be my online go-to of choice and I think one of these weekends I'm going to try out the deliver option. 

 

[usctrojancpa]

Just like solar... eye will eventually buy in to Amazon Fresh.

Can a person with a family that cooks at home do all their grocery shopping at the new Amazon place?

It isn't super fancy - but it has a normal selection of a grocery store. This isn't like a trader joes we are talking about that has select items and you still need to go to a Ralphs or Albertsons or whatever. This is much closer to an Alberton's.  Some limitations - smaller deli and I thought a little less of a meat market than most of the big box Irvine stores. 

But this is the only store where you can actually pay the same price to get groceries delivered to your house as you do in store. I think everywhere else you pay a premium. I haven't actually done the order - but I think I've seen people on here say that. To me that is a game changer. I had no desire to pay a 10%+ mark-up to order my groceries online and do all that...if it is the same price and same day delivery (I suppose it is still a bit higher cause you got to put in tip - but those other places all have mark-up plus tip)....well now maybe it isn't so bad. 

Prices were okay.  It isn't my go to grocery store and probably won't ever become it - but it would be my online go-to of choice and I think one of these weekends I'm going to try out the deliver option. 

Their selection is a bit limited but so far I'm happy with the fruit and meat quality plus I love the 5% cashback using the Amazon Chase card. I'll still go to Trader Joes, Stater Bros, and Costco but not as frequently now.

 

[nosuchreality]

I think the selection is on par with the older Stater, Vons, Ralph's locations.  2x the size of a TJ or Aldi, half the size of a newer anchor grocery ztore like the Stater by the district.

 

[eyephone]

I think the selection is on par with the older Stater, Vons, Ralph's locations.  2x the size of a TJ or Aldi, half the size of a newer anchor grocery ztore like the Stater by the district.

Someone said selection was like Target? idk

 

[nosuchreality]

I think the selection is on par with the older Stater, Vons, Ralph's locations.  2x the size of a TJ or Aldi, half the size of a newer anchor grocery ztore like the Stater by the district.

Someone said selection was like Target? idk

Yes, its a glorified Target. The Target grocery secrions are basically the same selecfion as the older smaller groceries, sans the butcher.

 

[nosuchreality]

Anybody else notice the very long expiration dates on the Happy Belly dairy?

We got a delivery yesterday and the Milk again has an expiration date two+ weeks out, Dec 20th, 16 days.

I?m wondering if this is just a sign of how fast the private label bottling and supply chain is for Amazon as compared to other store brand or local brand like Alta Dena which typically is 7-10 days.

Or just the opposite style marketing push on ?expiration? dates?

 

[eyephone]

So my wife place and ordered for eggs and other stuff to make it $35. Guess what no eggs. They gave us credit for the eggs. She also made a note to ring the door bell when they deliver. They did not do that. Grade F (not for fantastic but for fail)

 

[irvinehomeowner]

@nsr: I notice that organic milk has a longer shelf life than non-organic milk... which to me seems contradictory.

 

[nosuchreality]

@nsr: I notice that organic milk has a longer shelf life than non-organic milk... which to me seems contradictory.

A lot of them are Ultrapasteurized which extends shelf life.

The happy belly is just pasteurized.  Granted plain pasteurization has steadily crept higher in temps making the milk unsuitable to make cheese.

 

[qwerty]

Yeah I remember when milk had an expiration date of like 5-7 days. Then it doubled. Ive seen some at Ralph?s as far as three weeks out. 

My kids drink the horizon organic milk that can be stored at room temp and the shelf life of that is like a Twinkie. Makes me wonder how organic it is