A Look Inside the New Amazon Grocery Co-Located With Whole Foods
It’s not as much an add-on or pop-up as it is an integration centered on the same customer-focused approach to doing business: The new Amazon Grocery small-format store adjacent to a Whole Foods Market in Chicago is designed to provide shoppers with more options.
Progressive Grocer visited the Amazon Grocery outpost that opened its doors a few days ago. The c-store occupies the first level of a space at 14 W. Superior Street in Chicago’s Gold Coast Neighborhood and is steps from an escalator leading up to a full-format Whole Foods Market.
This new type of physical store fuses many of the company’s options and services, offering traditional branded products that are not on the shelf at Whole Foods. “We’re always looking for ways to make it easier for customers to shop for groceries, whether online or in store. We’re testing and learning with a new grocery shopping experience with a small-format store from Amazon under the same roof as Whole Foods Market in the One Chicago building,” Amazon spokesperson Jessica Martin told Progressive Grocer. “With this new concept, customers can shop their favorite natural and organic products at Whole Foods Market and get a broader product assortment from Amazon all in one trip, saving them time and money.”
The store-near-a-store concept aligns with Amazon’s retail strategies that were highlighted at the recent “Delivering the Future” event in Nashville. Among other updates, Amazon shared that is putting the finishing touches on its first automated micro-fulfillment center at a Whole Foods store in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., which will supplement products found in that market with items from Amazon.com and Amazon Fresh.
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The new Amazon Grocery in the mixed-use One Chicago building was doing brisk business during PG’s recent visit. Customers could browse from 3,500 products within the 3,800-square-foot store and pick up everyday essentials and groceries along with grab-and-go meals and snacks, ranging from fresh-baked cinnamon rolls to jars of Farmer Fridge salads. An onsite coffee bar is another amenity that caters to nearby residents and urban workers.
Amazon’s technologies are on display at the Amazon Grocery store, too. Customers can pay by palm, enjoy frictionless checkout and return Amazon.com packages via a kiosk by the front door.
Upstairs, the Whole Foods Market features a popular hot foods bar, along with an array of fresh products and household and self-care products. That store opened in 2022.
Seattle-based Amazon is No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market is a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon. Both Whole Foods and Amazon were named among PG’s Retailers of the Century. PG also named Whole Foods one of its 2024 Top 10 Sustainable Grocers.
