Amazon Fresh Makes Debut in D.C.

The Washington, D.C. area will welcome a new Amazon Fresh store on May 27 when the retailer opens a 30,000-square-foot store and begins its eastward expansion.

The new store will be located in a shopping center at 7005 C Manchester Blvd., in the D.C. suburb of  Franconia, Va. It will be the 13^th Amazon Fresh location and the first outside of the Southern California and Chicago markets.

“We look forward to serving the Franconia community and welcoming customers into our doors,” said Nadeem Sheikh, store manager of the new Franconia store. “In addition to low prices, customers will find a broad selection of high-quality food and innovative shopping features. We’re also proud that this store has created hundreds of good jobs for the local community.”

Amazon Fresh touts consistently low prices on a wide assortment of national brands and high-quality produce, meat, and seafood, as well as a range of prepared foods made fresh in store every day.

“We’ve also introduced new ways to make grocery shopping more convenient like the Amazon Dash Cart, which enables customers to skip the checkout line, and new Alexa features to help customers manage their shopping lists and better navigate our aisles,” the company said in a statement. “We’ve received great customer feedback on our innovative shopping features like the Amazon Dash Cart, which customers love for their added convenience and ability to skip the checkout line, and we can’t wait to hear what our customers in Franconia think.”

The store will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily and should offer Amazon further insight on its real-estate expansion strategy and how Amazon Fresh will either compete or complement Amazon’s Whole Foods Market stores. There are roughly 20 Whole Foods stores in the greater D.C. area, but the closest locations to the new Amazon Fresh in Franconia are more than 12 miles away.

Seattle-based Amazon is No. 2 on Progressive Grocer’s 2021 PG 100 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.