Amazon is considering opening as many as 3,000 AmazonGo cashierless stores over the next few years, Bloomberg reported yesterday, calling it "an aggressive and costly expansion that would threaten convenience chains like 7-Eleven Inc., quick-service sandwich shops like Subway and Panera Bread, and mom-and-pop pizzerias and taco trucks."
Amazon opened its first AmazonGo store in Seattle, Wash., in 2016, and has several others. The stores feature high-tech sensors and scanners that do away with checkout, and offer mainly prepared foods and groceries. Amazon spent $1 million on technology in the first store, although such costs should go down with multiples openings. Still, such a move could put Amazon in "an investment cycle," Bloomberg said. In other words, the company could go back to losing a lot of money.
Bloomberg noted that Bezos has said Amazon is "very interested" in bricks-and-mortar stores, but only if they have something new to offer. Having 3,000 convenience stores would make AmazonGo "among the biggest chains in the U.S." There about 155,000 convenience stores, 122,500 of which are combined with gas stations, in the U.S.
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Amazon plans to open its second large-scale fulfillment center in Stockton, Calif. The one million-square-foot warehouse joins Central and Northern California facilities in Fresno, Newark, Patterson, Sacramento, Tracy and Vacaville. The company estimates that its direct investments contributed an additional $15 billion to the state's economy from 2011 to 2017 and generated an additional 50,000 indirect jobs on top of the company's direct hires.
"Since we first began operating in California six years ago, we have found a network of support from community leaders, a dedicated workforce and fantastic customers," said Mark Stewart, v-p of Amazon's North America operations.