As the trade awaits the debut of Amazon’s new unnamed grocery store concept (likely to debut in Woodland Hills, CA later this year), the country’s fastest growing retailer has been quietly adding locations to its roster that most likely will be utilized as full-service supermarkets. That new concept is expected to differ from the company’s Whole Foods natural and organic model but will include a strong presence in prepared foods and some foodservice components.
In April, at the auction to sell bankrupt Fairway Market’s stores, it was announced that Amazon was the winning bidder for the leases of two New Jersey units in Paramus and Woodland Park. Those stores are expected to open as Amazon grocery stores early next year.
More recently, sources have told us that Amazon will be a tenant at the site of the former Giant store on Easton Road in Warrington, PA in the Creekview Center. Giant closed that 49,000 square foot unit in 2013. The unit was originally a Genuardi’s store that opened in 2001.
Amazon is reportedly leasing nearly 36,000 square feet of that building and could have the store ready by the end of 2020.
Additionally, sources have noted that Amazon will be leasing 41,000 square feet of space in the former Kmart on Street Road in Bensalem, PA (in the Brookwood Shopping Center) that had been reported to be headed to ShopRite retailer Jeff Brown as a replacement unit for his current Bensalem store. The 97,500 square foot Kmart closed in 2017.
There is also talk that Amazon has secured a third Philadelphia-area location in Center City, the location of which has yet to be revealed.
In addition to the potential new Amazon grocery stores in northern New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, the company is also reportedly building its supermarket real estate portfolio in the Washington, DC area where new stores could be built in Fairfax and Franconia, VA as well as two in the District of Columbia – Wisconsin Avenue NW and H. Street NW.