Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Amazon may be expanding Amazon Go, the company’s brick-and-mortar convenience store concept, to as many as 3,000 new locations by 2021, according to Bloomberg.
The aggressive and costly expansion would threaten chains like 7-Eleven, quick-service sandwich shops like Subway and Panera Bread, and mom-and-pop pizzerias and taco trucks, according to Bloomberg.
Sources close to the topic told Bloomberg that CEO Jeff Bezos “sees eliminating meal-time logjams in busy cities as the best way for Amazon to reinvent the brick-and-mortar shopping experience, where most spending still occurs.”
However, Bezos is weighing the best options. The new locations could be either a convenience store with fresh prepared foods and a limited grocery selection or a place for people to pick up a quick bite to eat, similar to the U.K.-based chain Pret a Manger, Bloomberg reports.
The company opened its first Amazon Go location in Seattle in 2016, according to Hardware Retailing, and since then, it has announced two additional sites in Seattle and one in Chicago. Shoppers use a smartphone app to enter the store and can then shop and later exit the store without stopping at a cash register.
“The company is considering plans to have about 10 locations open by the end of this year, about 50 locations in major metro areas in 2019, and then as many as 3,000 by 2021,” those close to the internal planning shared with Bloomberg.
