Amazon Go Opens Another Suburban Store

• Amazon has opened another Amazon Go store in Woodland Hills, California — its third in the area in recent months. 
• The Amazon Go concept is typically found in cities, but the e-commerce giant has brought the concept to suburbs this year. 
• The 5,000-square-foot store will feature grab-and-go food, a larger selection of beer and wine and a kitchen offering made-to-order items. 

Amazon has opened another Amazon Go store in the Los Angeles area, the third store it opened in the region this year. 

The store is about 5,000 square feet, Amazon told Retail Leader in an email. Nearly half of that space — 2,400 square feet — is front-of-house retail space, according to the retailer. 

The Amazon Go concept, which mostly appears in cities, first opened in 2018, but started expanding to suburban locations earlier this year. As Progressive Grocer previously reported, Amazon announced the altered format in January and opened its first suburban Go store in Mill Creek, Washington, in April. 

The retailer said that the suburban stores feature design tweaks meant to cater to consumers in the area, including an expanded grab-and-go food and beverage section and a larger selection of beer and wine. 

The store also includes a new kitchen, which will serve made-to-order items like sandwiches, wraps and salads, specialty drinks, including Starbucks coffee, and self-serve Pinkberry frozen yogurt, according to Amazon. It will also feature local food and beverages from brands such as Fresh Grill, LOV Bakery, Chubby Snacks, Glonuts, Smog City, Three Weavers and Offshoot Brewery. 

With the opening of the new Woodland Hills location, Amazon now has 28 standalone Amazon Go locations in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles. There are two additional Amazon Go with Starbucks pickup locations in New York City. Like other Amazon Go stores, the latest location features Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology, which allows shoppers to add items to their shopping cart and take them from the store without ever having to go through a check-out process. 

Amazon operates numerous brick-and-mortar concepts, including Whole Foods, Amazon Go and Amazon Style stores. The e-commerce giant, however, has this year re-evaluated its physical store strategy, shutting down several of its store concepts this year.

Amazon earlier this year shuttered its Amazon Books, Amazon 4-Star and Amazon Pop Up formats (66 locations in the U.S.). The decision to close the concepts came as Amazon’s physical retail locations lagged behind its primary e-commerce business, with sales at stores lower in 2021 than in 2018, according to a CNBC report. But the retailer continues to invest in its physical grocery store presence, as it has opened more than a dozen Amazon Fresh locations this year, bringing its total to 44 Fresh stores in the U.S.