Now we all know about the Amazon fiasco back on July 15, when their Amazon Prime Day sale ended in humiliation. I hope Amazon got that behind them. It certainly seems that way.
According to Silicon Valley insiders, Amazon is moving to their next ambition: the drive-in grocery store. Don’t confuse this with their delivery service. Here is how it’s expected to work: you order your groceries online. You schedule a pick up at a grocery store. On the way, someone is packing up your order. By the time you drive up, they’re ready for you to be picked up and taken back home. If the world’s biggest online retailer can pull this off, that would bring an additional challenge to a grocery industry already caught up in a whirlwind of change. We see that change from questions about the food (the GMO debate) to the way we pay for them (Apple Pay). The debut location is expected to be in Sunnydale, CA, the heart of Silicon Valley. Real estate developers are already preparing 11,600 square foot building for grocery housing and pick up. They even have an address planned for pickup: 777 Sunnyvale Saratoga Road. Amazon isn’t confirming or saying anything about this alleged new project. Neither is the real estate developer.
I must stress this. Amazon hasn’t yet confirmed this new endeavor. So why even write about it? Imagine if Amazon grocery drive-up services are successful. Imagine if that success travels across the country. Can you imagine how much more power and influence that would give Amazon, already one of the most powerful corporations in the world today? But I can’t imagine getting groceries online and then going to pick them up and be done with it. Call me old school, but there’s something sacred about looking around for brands, produce and price. There’s something about smelling the fruits, feeling the vegetables, asking the butchers about the meat, and indulging the free samples. Yes, I even like to squeeze the Charmin every once in a while. Can you do that with Amazon grocery drive up?