Amazon.com Inc. said it will open its first Amazon Fresh grocery store in Illinois on December 10 in Naperville.
The Seattle retailing giant (Nasdaq: AMZN) said in October that it plans to open four Amazon Fresh grocery stores in Chicagoland and hire 1,500 people.
The Naperville store will open first, with Amazon saying it's the fifth Amazon Fresh store to open nationally. The 35,000-square-foot store is located at 3116 South Route 59 in Naperville. Other Chicagoland stores are planned for Bloomingdale, Oak Lawn and Schaumburg. Amazon did not reveal opening dates for those stores.
Amazon said in a statement that the Naperville store was supporting the community, saying it's "creating hundreds of high-quality local jobs, with a starting wage of $15 and comprehensive benefits on day one. We’re also supporting the Naperville community by donating surplus food from the Amazon Fresh store to local food banks. We have already donated over 165,000 lbs. of food (equivalent to over 135,000 meals) since this location opened as an online-only store."
Amazon introduced its first Amazon Fresh grocery store in Woodland Hills, California in August. It describes the concept as "designed from the ground up to offer a seamless grocery shopping experience, whether customers are shopping in-store or online." Store features include Amazon Dash cart that allows shoppers to leave without using a checkout line.
