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Amazon opens 16th Fresh Store

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PHILADELPHIA — Amazon has opened its 16th Amazon Fresh location in the Philadelphia suburb of Warrington, Bucks County. It is the company’s first Amazon Fresh outlet in Pennsylvania, although another opening is expected in Bensalem.

The Amazon Fresh concept debuted last September in the Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills, followed by additional locations in Southern California and the greater Chicago area. Amazon added three stores since the end of its first quarter, with a 30,000-square-foot unit in Franconia, Va.; a 7,303-square-foot outlet in Washington, D.C.; and a 25,000-square-foot store in Bellevue, Wash. The D.C. location is the smallest Amazon Fresh to open yet, while the Bellevue store is the first to incorporate Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology.

Although high-tech touches such as the Dash Cart tend to draw the most media attention, the Amazon Fresh format is actually close to a conventional supermarket, offering an extensive array of fresh produce, meat, seafood, baked goods and prepared food. It features a wide assortment of national brands to target a broader customer base than that of Whole Foods Market, which Amazon owns. Whole Foods remains the largest component of Amazon’s physical stores segment with 505 locations.

Amazon’s total net sales for the second quarter (which ended June 30) soared nearly 25% to $113.08 billion, but fell short of Wall Street’s consensus projection of $115.07 billion. Sales generated by its brick-and-mortar stores, though, gained 11% to $4.2 billion, the first year-over-year increase since the first quarter of fiscal 2020. Sales rose sequentially from the first quarter by 7.1%.

The second quarter included Amazon Prime Day, which contributed about $4 billion in sales. During a conference call, chief financial officer Brian Olsavsky noted that the quarter was a transitional period for many Amazon customers.

“As the quarter progressed people were at home less as restrictions and lockdowns eased in some of our larger geographies, including the U.S. and much of Europe,” he said. “As a result, while Prime members continue to spend more with us, growth in Prime member spend moderated compared to spending seen during the peak of the pandemic.”

Amazon’s bottom line displayed even more robust growth, skyrocketing 48.4% to $7.78 billion, or $15.12 per diluted share, well ahead of the average estimate of $12.22 per share among analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.


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