Speaker 1: Rich Demiro here Rich on Tech with Jeff Helbling, the
Speaker 1: vice president of Amazon Fresh Stores, got a new store
Speaker 1: opening in Woodland Hills today. Jeff, tell me about this store.
Speaker 1: Just give me the quick rundown. Is it a traditional
Speaker 1: grocery store? Is it?
Speaker 2: What is it like? Well? Thanks Rich. We're incredibly excited
Speaker 2: to open our doors today to the Woodland Hills community. There.
Speaker 2: The stores designs from the ground up to offer a
Speaker 2: seamless grocery shopping experience, whether you're shopping in store online.
Speaker 2: We've taken our decades of operations experience at Amazon to
Speaker 2: deliver consistently low prices for everybody in three same day
Speaker 2: delivery and pick up for Prime members. We've also introduced
Speaker 2: new ways to make grocery shopping more convenient. The Woodland
Speaker 2: Hills store is the first store where customers can use
Speaker 2: our Amazon Dash Cart, which enables them to skip the
Speaker 2: checkout line, and a set of new elect features, including
Speaker 2: the in store Assistant and electa lists in store help
Speaker 2: them better manage their shopping lists and better navigate our ouse. Last,
Speaker 2: but not least, we're very proud of our product offering
Speaker 2: and prices, particularly our fresh produce and Fresh prepared suits
Speaker 2: which are made by our culinary team in store every day,
Speaker 2: a couple of items to call out. Within the store,
Speaker 2: we offer fresh bakes that get made every day for
Speaker 2: eighty nine cents, fresh baked pizza slices for dollars seventy nine,
Speaker 2: and riches chickens for four ninety seven. So we're excited
Speaker 2: to have customers come in the store to see see
Speaker 2: what they think.
Speaker 1: Now, can you explain the dash cart just quickly? So
Speaker 1: I go through the store and I scan my own
Speaker 1: items and I can just walk out as long as
Speaker 1: I have sort of an Amazon account attached to it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the way it works is you walk into
Speaker 2: the store and you actually scan into the dash cart,
Speaker 2: You pull up your Amazon app. There's a QR code
Speaker 2: in the app, and use that to sign into the cart.
Speaker 2: You then put bags into the cart and you shop
Speaker 2: as you normally would. The dash cart has inward facing
Speaker 2: cameras that sand items for you as you put them
Speaker 2: into the cart. It also has a scale's way items
Speaker 2: as you go, and so essentially you just shop like
Speaker 2: you normally would. As you put an item into the cart,
Speaker 2: the cart recognizes the item and then it also pulls
Speaker 2: up the item on the screen, so you can essentially
Speaker 2: see your running tally of purchases to go through the store.
Speaker 2: When you're done shopping, we have a dash cart aisle
Speaker 2: that you simply exit out of and you walk right
Speaker 2: out of the store.
Speaker 1: Now real quick with the running do you see a
Speaker 1: running total of what you're spending or just a running
Speaker 1: kind of tab of the things that you purchased.
Speaker 2: You see each item that you purchase, how many you purchase,
Speaker 2: the price of each, and then it adds up the
Speaker 2: running tab of everything that you purchase as you go,
Speaker 2: and so it's essentially a live digital account of you know,
Speaker 2: the receipt you would get at a checkout, and if
Speaker 2: you decide to pull anything out of the current you
Speaker 2: change your mind, you just take the item, put it
Speaker 2: back on the shelf. Then it will also subtract it
Speaker 2: and it'll show that line as you go as well.
Speaker 1: That's kind of a handy future for those of us
Speaker 1: that want to stick to a budget when we go
Speaker 1: into the store, because sometimes it's easy to overspend. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about cashier, so you still have regular cashiers as well.
Speaker 2: You don't do that, right, yeah, we do. We expect
Speaker 2: some customers will be thrilled to use the dash part.
Speaker 2: Other customers are just going to want to use the
Speaker 2: cash here like any other grocery store, and so we
Speaker 2: have traditional point and sail stations with cashiers. The thing
Speaker 2: I would add there is we do have contactless payments
Speaker 2: customers that want it, so similar to the way that
Speaker 2: you use your Amazon app and the QR code to
Speaker 2: sign into a dash card. If you choose and want
Speaker 2: to do that at at the at the cash app,
Speaker 2: you can do that as well.
Speaker 1: Now, why not just open a new Whole Foods? Why
Speaker 1: come up with a whole new way of creating a
Speaker 1: grocery store.
Speaker 2: Well, we're excited to give customers the additional choice. You know,
Speaker 2: Whole Food has been and continues to be the pioneer
Speaker 2: in natural and organic foods. Uh. It's a business we're
Speaker 2: very proud to have, and we see Amazon Fresh being
Speaker 2: essentially a compliment. The two businesses serve different customer needs
Speaker 2: and we're excited about offering customers the choice between them,
Speaker 2: and you know, we continue to invest and grow in
Speaker 2: both of them, and we set customers will white shopping.
Speaker 1: Both and there's a difference of the things you can
Speaker 1: get like you mentioned earlier, it's much more of a
Speaker 1: variety of things like Cheetos or sorry cheerios or chips
Speaker 1: from Free to Lay, Coca Cola, but also some of
Speaker 1: those organic brands as well. Will it will there be
Speaker 1: an emphasis on organic. Will you offer a lot of
Speaker 1: that stuff in the store.
Speaker 2: We will offer episodes, We will offer organic products in store,
Speaker 2: but not to the extent that Whole Foods does Whole
Speaker 2: Foods offer It's much more focused sort of in the
Speaker 2: organic space. As you mentioned, we're going to have a
Speaker 2: larger conventional offer. We will have more national brands the
Speaker 2: type if you mentioned. We will have Cheetos.
Speaker 1: Also, okay, just making sure they're Yeah.
Speaker 2: So the offers actually, when you look at the product offers,
Speaker 2: the majority of products are different between the two stores.
Speaker 2: And again where we're excited to offer customers the choice
Speaker 2: and the ability to get both.
Speaker 1: Now I heard earlier when you mentioned about the Prime
Speaker 1: members and the and the free pickup. Do Prime members
Speaker 1: have any advantage shopping here? Do I need a Prime
Speaker 1: membership to get in or to get certain pricing?
Speaker 2: So in terms of pricing within the store, everybody gets
Speaker 2: the same low prices every day. You do not need
Speaker 2: a Prime membership to either shop the store or you know,
Speaker 2: to use the dash cart. You just need an Amazon
Speaker 2: account to use the dash cart. Prime members do, however,
Speaker 2: get free pickup and delivery from the store, and Prime
Speaker 2: members are also eligible to use the Primer Board's credit card,
Speaker 2: which gives them five percent off alter store.
Speaker 1: Now, Jeff, you said you had a local connection to
Speaker 1: Southern California. Grocery stores are historically extremely tough in Southern California.
Speaker 1: We had Fresh and Easy come in and just did
Speaker 1: not do well. Then we had another brand come in
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. It lasted like, I think,
Speaker 1: less than six months. It was a brand from Oregon.
Speaker 1: What makes you think that Amazon Fresh will be able
Speaker 1: to succeed in this Southern California grocery store very competitive
Speaker 1: grocery store market.
Speaker 2: Well, I at first I would agree with the you know,
Speaker 2: the premise of your question. You know, grocery is a
Speaker 2: very competitive space, and certainly we take nothing for granted
Speaker 2: in opening a new offer. It's up to us to
Speaker 2: offer something that's better for customers that earn their trust
Speaker 2: in windsor business. In doing so. You know, we we
Speaker 2: do our best to focus on those things that are
Speaker 2: eternal that customers care most about when they put the store,
Speaker 2: and that's you know, is the store convenient for me?
Speaker 2: Is it in a great location, And you know, in
Speaker 2: our case, can I get free pick up and deliver
Speaker 2: if I'm a prime number? Second, does it have prices,
Speaker 2: uh low prices on the items that I want? And third,
Speaker 2: does it have the products that I want? Does it
Speaker 2: have really great high quality options? And you know, we
Speaker 2: think we've opened the store that delivers on all three
Speaker 2: of us. We're very proud of our pricing, and you know,
Speaker 2: we're excited for customers to come in and experience that.
Speaker 2: We're very excited about our product offering, particularly again in
Speaker 2: our produce areas and our prepared food areas, but also
Speaker 2: sort of our mix of brands and local and regional products.
Speaker 2: And finally, we're we're really proud of the you know,
Speaker 2: the convenience we offer customers, whether that be uh, you know,
Speaker 2: the convenience if you're a Prime member of getting free
Speaker 2: fast shipping, home delivery or pick up, or if you
Speaker 2: choose the shop in the store, getting to use our
Speaker 2: dash cards or election just to make your your shopping
Speaker 2: trip more easy.
Speaker 1: We will there any products like non grocery like a
Speaker 1: SD card or something you know that Amazon identifies as
Speaker 1: popular in the area. Some electronics like the you know,
Speaker 1: Amazon firestick, any of those types of things in the store.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. When you come into the store, you'll find
Speaker 2: there's an area we're calling sort of the best of
Speaker 2: Amazon Products, which includes sort of a number of things.
Speaker 2: Most of them have some sort of food relation, but
Speaker 2: not all of them. So you'll be able to buy
Speaker 2: eco devices, for example. You'll also be able to buy
Speaker 2: things like instant post, the pots and.
Speaker 1: Jeff, tell me where can we expect these stores to
Speaker 1: open next?
Speaker 2: After Woodland Hills, Rich, We've announced a couple more stores
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles, So after Woodland Hills, we're actually operating
Speaker 2: three stores right now for online only operations that we
Speaker 2: tend to open up later this year. Those are in
Speaker 2: Irvine North Region, North Hollywood, and we also have announced
Speaker 2: a couple of stores in the Illinois region around Chicago.
Speaker 2: So Apra, Bill Schomberg, and okan.
Speaker 1: All right, Jeff Helpling, vice president of Amazon Fresh Stores,
Speaker 1: looking forward to the opening of the Woodland Hills store
Speaker 1: here in California. Thanks so much for joining me today.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Rich,