Sherwin C.
Yelp
I've had Amazon Fresh delivered to me for a while as a Prime Customer so I was already quite familiar with the quality, prices, and selection of the food. This weekend I was in the area and finally decided to visit the store in person to get the futuristic shopping experience that I heard of, and I was pleasantly surprised.
If you envision Amazon as a company that is fast paced, high volume, efficient, innovative, data driven, and utilizes effective design, this store is for you. Since I've been to probably every other Amazon retail concept, this store was not a surprise for me at all in terms of design and operation. The parking lot is fairly large, with one way traffic flow, and well marked and maintained. Carts and baskets are plentiful, returned frequently to ensure availability for the next customer.
Selection appears to be optimized, so while you don't have an enormous selection like Woodman's, you will find all the common items you'd looking for without an issue. I'd imagine this is data driven and items without good sales velocity and high ratings will get replaced by others on the shelf. The shelves are meticulously maintained with neatly arranged stock, stacked fairly high, with a very logical sequence of labels and vertical arrangement.
I did not get too much employee interaction during my visit though there were plenty of employees working. It did seem that they were very focused on maintaining the store to standards and ones that I did talk to provided quick and efficient responses. The Amazon store brands (Amazon fresh, Amazon kitchen, Aplenty, etc.) were quite a bit cheaper than other brands on the shelves and the quality of the items I bought were pretty good (was mostly looking for replacements for meal kits and desserts for the holidays).
Despite being fairly busy, I feel the traffic flow within the store was pretty good so that I didn't run into too many other people. There were also Alexa stations to help guide me in case I needed help navigating the store. The dash carts were fun to use though I can see how it may be slightly frustrating for those who aren't familiar with their function as you need to access your account from an app you may not have downloaded ahead of time. You also need to make sure the cart can detect some type of bar code or something else to accurately add and remove items from the total. Once you understand that though, it's hard to imagine not shopping with a smart cart that keeps a running total of your purchases and provides suggestions.
Overall, this store feels very Amazon to me and that works well for someone who wants a quick data driven shopping experience and confidence in buying good quality products even if they are not always the cheapest in every category.