Amazon Fresh’s Murrieta store to be first in the IE
The Inland Empire’s first Amazon Fresh market is set to open in Murrieta Town Center in late fall, a move that will complement two additional Amazon Fresh openings planned for La Habra and Cerritos in the coming months.
The three stores will boost the company’s Southern California footprint to 11 locations.
The city of Murrieta shared news of the store’s upcoming opening in a YouTube video and a Facebook post. The video provides an aerial view of the Amazon Fresh market, which is under construction. A company spokeswoman declined to provide an opening date and wouldn’t offer additional details, saying the company “doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.”
Scott Agajanian, Murrieta’s deputy director of economic development, said Amazon Fresh will be a welcome addition to the retail center, which includes Burlington, Ross Dress For Less, Marshalls and Floor & Decor, among others.
“That area has been under-grocered for some time,” he said. “We have a Sam’s Club across the street, but that’s for highervolume shopping.”
Amazon Fresh is a new concept that launched last year, bringing to the aisles a high-tech, streamlined shopping experience.
The company didn’t say whether the Murrieta store, like those coming to La Habra and Cerritos, will feature its Just Walk Out technology, allowing shoppers to enter a store, grab what they want and leave without going through a checkout line or self-serve kiosk.
The walk-out uses hundreds of cameras and sensor on shelves throughout the store, according to Amazon Fresh District Manager Jondolon Bush.
The system, he says, allows Amazon “to recognize all of the products shoppers take off or put back on the shelves.”
Customers must first pass through a scanning station when entering the store, enabling a QR code in their Amazon app, their palm print or a credit or debit card linked to an Amazon account.
As they shop, Amazon’s technology adds up items
taken off the shelf and put into a shopper’s cart. When a customer exits the store, they scan their card, palm or QR code and are charged for the items in their cart. If a customer wants a receipt, they can visit a kiosk in the store, enter their email address and a receipt will be sent to them.
Other Amazon Fresh stores use checkout-free Dash Carts which also allow shoppers to sign in using a QR code from their Amazon app. Customers not feeling so tech-savvy can use traditional checkout lanes staffed by Amazon employees.
Amazon Fresh carries a broad selection of produce, meat and seafood, baked goods and prepared foods made daily at the store, including made-to-order pizzas, rotisserie chickens and hot sandwiches.
The budding supermarket chain has 18 stores, including eight in Southern California, four in Illinois, one in Maryland, one in Pennsylvania, one in Virginia, two in Washington state and one in Washington, D.C.
Southern California stores currently in operation are in Fullerton, Irvine, Long Beach, Ladera Heights, North Hollywood, Northridge, Whittier and Woodland Hills.
The company said more than 3,000 full-time and part-time Amazon Fresh jobs have been created in Southern California since the first local store opened in Woodland Hills in the fall of 2020.