Amazon’s first Fresh grocery store opens in Los Angeles

Amazon is (likely) about to conquer another retail business: grocery stores.

On Thursday, the company announced the opening of its first ever Amazon Fresh grocery store in Woodland Hills, California.

The store stocks “a wide assortment of national brands and high-quality produce, meat, and seafood,” and offers seamless in-store and online shopping, Amazon says. Prices will be “consistently low,” and Prime members get free same-day delivery.

The store will also offer prepared foods every day, including baked bread, made-to-order pizzas, and hot sandwiches.

Amazon has implemented a number of health and safety measures amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, including daily temperature checks for employees, required face coverings for both employees and customers (with free disposable masks available to all customers who want them), as well as operating the store at 50 percent capacity.

Amazon being Amazon, the Fresh store will be quite a bit more high-tech than your average grocery store.

Customers will also be able to skip the checkout line with the new version of Amazon Dash Cart, allowing them to automatically pay as they exit the store through the Dash Cart lane. And the company has sprinkled Amazon Echo Show devices throughout the store, enabling customers to ask questions like “Alexa, where can I find the hot sauce?” or “Alexa, is it weird that I’m talking to a machine in a grocery store?”

The Amazon Fresh store in Woodland Hills is currently invite-only, but it will open to everyone “in the coming weeks.” More information is available here.