Amazon said it will open a small-format store at its Whole Foods Market location on the Upper West Side in the fall, followed by a Hell's Kitchen location later in the month. A third small-format store is planned for New York City, with a location to be announced before a national rollout.
The first permanent Whole Foods Market Dairy Shop location will open this fall at 1175 Third Avenue at East 69th Street, followed by a second location at 301 West 50th Street at Eighth Avenue in Hell's Kitchen. Both locations will also feature Juice & Java, offering coffee, tea, juice, smoothies, sandwiches, soups and desserts.
In 2019, Whole Foods piloted a small, 2,500-square-foot store with self-checkout kiosks and a selection of locally sourced goods, including Gotham Greens produce, Balthazar bread, and Dunwell & Dow doughnuts. Consumer response to the pilot led to the concept being rolled out more broadly. Supermarket News report.
The smaller markets will be about 7,000 to 14,000 square feet in size, instead of the typical 40,000-square-foot grocery stores, and will focus on grab-and-go meals and prepared foods, seasonal produce, meat, seafood, bread, booze and supplements.
The scaled-down stores are the latest move by the Amazon-owned giant in the fiercely competitive grocery wars. The move comes as Walmart is said to be “out-competing Amazon.” Meanwhile, Wegmans, which opened an 87,000-square-foot store in Manhattan's Astor Place in October, plans to expand its presence in the city. Other grocers, including Lidl and H Mart, are also expanding across the five boroughs. Amazon also operates five Amazon Go convenience stores in New York City.
The New York flagship Whole Foods opened in Columbus Circle in 2004. Since then, there are 17 stores in New York and more than 5,000 employees, according to its website. In 2017, Amazon acquired Austin-based Whole Foods and has aggressively expanded the brand nationally. Today, there are more than 500 stores across North America and the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1980 as a certified organic grocer in Austin, Texas.
