Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) will open its third area Amazon Fresh store Thursday, bringing the grocery option to Maryland for the first time.
The company sent flyers to the Chevy Chase and Friendship Heights neighborhoods in Maryland promoting the 7 a.m. grand opening of the Amazon Fresh at 5463 Wisconsin Ave. The first 100 customers in line will receive an Amazon gift card, according to the promotion.
The first Maryland Amazon Fresh replaces a former Giant grocery store in The Collection at Chevy Chase shopping center. In July, the company opened its Logan Circle store in the District; in May, the Franconia store in Northern Virginia.
Per Washington Business Journal reporting, at least one more Amazon Fresh store is planned for Maryland in Gaithersburg, as well as four more in Northern Virginia — in the city of Fairfax, Lorton, Baileys Crossroads and Potomac Yard. Another Amazon grocery store, which could be an Amazon Fresh or its smaller chain, Go Grocery, is slated for H Street NE.
There are none currently planned in Prince George's County or in D.C. east of the Anacostia River, based on Business Journal research, though officials in both areas would very much like to see Amazon bring its brick-and-mortar retail to those communities.
One week ago, Amazon partnered with Lift-D.C., the local chapter of a national nonprofit working to alleviate generational poverty, for a back-to-school item giveaway held in the parking lot behind the Friendship Heights store. Employees of Amazon Fresh, Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star stores in the D.C. area gave away backpacks, smoothies, notebooks, water bottles and pens and pencils.
Amy Denner is the store manager for the Amazon Fresh in Friendship Heights. This is her first role with Amazon, having previously held store manager roles with Neiman Marcus Group and JCPenney, according to her LinkedIn page.
An Amazon Jobs posting from Aug. 12 lists two associate job openings at the Friendship Heights store, one daytime and the other overnight, both starting at $15.20 an hour.
