Bloomberg reports that after several months of beta testing, Amazon has opened two AmazonFresh pickup locations to the general public in Seattle.
One of them is in Ballard, a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the city; the other is in the Sodo neighborhood, quite literally in the shadow of Starbucks headquarters with easy access to the West Seattle Bridge.
AmazonFresh Pickup is now available to Amazon Prime members who are paying an annual fee of $99 a year; it allows these members to order products online and pick them up at the locations in as little as 15 minutes.
- KC's View:
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It was to be expected that the AmazonFresh Pickup locations would open before Amazon Go, the company's checkout-free store that also is in beta test in Seattle. For the record, Amazon tested click-and-collect a long time ago, but I suspect this time it will be more successful, if only because time and consumer trends have caught up with Amazon's vision.
If this works, it'll be interesting to see how Amazon rolls it out. I'm confident that they have a detailed plan for roll-out ... they're just waiting for the word.
