Amazon, which recently resumed openings of new Fresh grocery stores after a yearlong pause, held “grand reopenings” for two of its D.C.-area stores Saturday.
The redesigned Amazon Fresh stores, in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and Franconia, Virginia, followed similar redesigns of Fresh stores in Chicago and Southern California. The stores carry more national brands, higher-quality produce and meats, and more of Amazon’s own private-label brands, including Aplenty, Amazon Fresh, 365 by Whole Foods and Amazon’s newest private-label brand, Amazon Saver.
Some changes have also been made to the stores’ layouts.
Neither store closed during the changes. The Franconia store, which opened in 2021, was the first Amazon Fresh store in the D.C. area as part of its East Coast expansion. The Chevy Chase store, near the Friendship Heights Metro station, opened that same year. Amazon opened a second Fresh store in Chevy Chase in 2022.
There are other Amazon Fresh stores in Fairfax City, Lorton and Manassas. Its newest Fresh store is in Potomac Yard in Alexandria, which opened in July. Another opened in Gaithersburg in August. And similar upgrades are likely.
“Based on what we have heard and seen from customers and heard from our teams, we will continue to bring the concept to new and existing store locations with many of the elements you see in Chevy Chase and Franconia,” an Amazon spokesman said.
In addition to the D.C. area and Southern California, the only other Fresh stores are in the Chicago area, Seattle area, Philadelphia area and New York and New Jersey.
There are about 40 Fresh stores nationally. The Amazon Fresh store in Crystal City closed earlier this year.
“We are doing a fair bit of experimentation today in those stores to try to find a format that we think resonates with customers,” Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said following Amazon’s fourth quarter earnings report in February. “We’ve decided over the last year or so that we’re not going to expand the physical Fresh until we have that equation.”
Amazon has since slowly resumed Fresh additions. This summer, in addition to the Potomac Yard and Gaithersburg locations, Amazon opened nine other Fresh stores in other markets.
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