Amazon Fresh store in Poway remains shuttered as company works to 'improve shopping experience'

The empty parking lot and locked front doors are a constant reminder that the Amazon Fresh store in Poway has yet to open after more than two years of anticipation.

The Amazon Fresh building in Twin Peaks Plaza near Target on Pomerado Road has been ready for occupancy since early 2022, according to a city of Poway Facebook post.

“Almost eight months ago we signed off on a certificate of occupancy for the much-anticipated ‘Just Walk Out’ grocery store, signaling the completion of any work that required involvement from the city of Poway,” states the Nov. 21, 2022 posts.

Poway spokesperson Rene Carmichael said last month that the post was in response to questions and social media discussions on why the store had not opened yet as of late 2022.

It was also to inform the public that the city had signed a certificate of occupancy and was no longer involved in the project, by a private business at a private shopping center, Carmichael said.

An Amazon spokesperson said last month that the company is not yet able to share details about specific store location openings.

Carmel Mountain Ranch resident Bernadine Splettstoeszer said Amazon should share what their plans are regarding the Poway Amazon Fresh.

“They should be transparent with the community,” Splettstoeszer said. “I’m sure the intention was not to be closed for several years while they regroup and figure out their best business plan.”

Amazon announced it was pausing new openings of Amazon Fresh stores in February 2023. Since then the company has been working to improve the shopping experience, said Amazon spokesman Griffin Buch.

In November, the company made upgrades to stores in the Chicago and Los Angeles areas, adding signs to make the stores easier to navigate, introducing national and private label products along with prepared sandwiches, salads and wraps, and transitioning to the Amazon Dash Cart, a smart shopping cart, Buch said.

Opening brick-and-mortar stores to augment the company’s online grocery business requires “significant innovation and persistence,” said Amazon spokesperson Molly McWhinnie in an email statement last month.

“We’ll continue to open new Whole Foods Market stores, and will do so selectively with Amazon Fresh as we see results we like,” McWhinnie wrote.

More than 130 locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada use the Just Walk Out technology, but the Chicago and Southern California stores are using the Amazon Dash Cart technology.

The change was in response to customer feedback that while they liked the benefit of skipping the checkout line with Just Walk Out, they also wanted the ability to easily find nearby products and deals, view their receipt as they shop, and know how much money they made saved while shopping throughout the store, Buch said.

The Dash Cart uses a combination of computer vision and sensor fusion to help identify items placed in the cart, according to Amazon officials. Shoppers select an item, scan it on one of the Dash Cart cameras and place it in the cart. Customers can see how much they are spending in real time, officials said, and when they are done shopping they can skip the checkout line by going through the Dash Cart lane.

The Poway Amazon Fresh was built with the Just Walk Out technology. Some redesigned stores have the new Amazon Dash Cart.

San Diego resident Darin Triplett, said he’s mystified by the delayed opening of the Poway store.

“I went over there and walked around to go to Amazon Fresh but I found it was closed and never opened so I just went to Target,” Triplett said while dining out in the area. “I used to live next to a Whole Foods and I love Whole Foods. Amazon is taking over the world.”

Splettstoeszer said that Amazon is such an efficiently run company that he suspects the business operators have a plan, and are keeping their options open.

“They’re not waiting on a remodeling, they’re planning something else,” she said. “They have so much money, the lease is nothing — it’s chump change. It’s not good for the community to have it just sit there. It’s prime retail space.”

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy was quoted in a fourth-quarter earnings call on Feb. 1 as saying a “mass physical presence” is needed to serve as many grocery needs as Amazon does.

“And that’s what we’ve been trying to do with Fresh over several years,” Jassy said on the call. “We’ve been testing v2 (version 2) of our Fresh format in a few locations near Chicago, in a few locations in Southern California. It’s very early, it’s only a few months in, but the results so far are very promising and on almost every dimension.

“And so we need to see it for a little bit longer time, but the results appear like we have something that’s resonating,” he said. “And if we continue to see that then the issue becomes how fast and what’s the best way to expand.”