There is always something new and interesting happening at Amazon! Here are three of the latest stories in Amazon news:
Amazon New Location
Amazon is trying a new store format, and is opening a grocery store. This new brand of grocery store will be opening in Woodland Hills, a neighbourhood in Los Angeles, California in 2020.
Amazon has ambitions to break further into the $800 billion US grocery market than it already has.
Amazon-owned Whole Foods has over 500 stores, and Amazon offers grocery delivery through Amazon Fresh, Prime Now and the main Amazon website, as well as Amazon Go. Amazon is still considered small, compared to Walmart.
There were job postings that the company published for the Woodland Hills location, but there are little details besides the postings.
The location was described as “Amazon’s first grocery store” in the postings, and the only thing said about the store was that it would be different from Whole Foods. No mention of what kind of foods would be sold or what kind of pricing point, or even what the brand name would be, or if there would be multiple locations.
The Wall Street Journal said that Amazon was working on additional stores in Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, however.
The job posting implied that the brand name would be Amazon, and that there could be some expansion to more locations. One thing that is known is that the store won’t use Amazon Go technology. With Amazon Go technology, the customer can check out without having to wait in line.
Expanding more into the grocery market may help Amazon get into the mainstream grocery market, setting up the new grocery store as competition to other supermarket chains, while still maintaining Whole Foods as their higher-end organic and specialty store.
The Amazon Effect
It was about a year ago that Amazon made an announcement about their new dual locations for the Amazon headquarters, New York City and Virginia.
Instead of going with a planned New York Long Island City location, Amazon pulled out and went with Arlington Virginia only instead. House prices in New York actually dropped because of it!
Now, a year later, house prices in Virginia remain elevated because of the “Amazon Effect” while New York prices remain lower and have even dropped.
2020 FreightTech 25 Awards
For the second year in a row, Amazon took first place in the FreightTech 25 Awards. This award consists of more than 1,200 nominations for over 300 companies.
In order to be fair, the nominations were received through an open nomination process. The selections and rankings were decided by a diverse panel of voters made up of investors, industry leaders and CEOs.
The award recognizes the most “innovative and disruptive” companies in freight, and those that have made technological and/or economic advancements that have had an impact on transportation.
You may have noticed the results of these advancements when you received a package faster than you thought was possible!
It is Amazon’s innovation that keeps the company active, relevant and newsworthy!