Amazon’s PR for its new Factoria store (Image: Amazon Fresh)
In January, Seattle retail giant Amazon announced two new era grocery stores: one in Bellevue’s Factoria neighborhood and one in the heart of Seattle’s Central District at 23rd and Jackson. Last week, the company proudly showed off its first Amazon Fresh full-sized grocery to use it checkout-less “Just Walk Out technology” as it cut the ribbon on the Factoria store.
When will the 25,000-square-foot South Jackson Amazon Fresh open? The company isn’t saying.
An Amazon spokesperson couldn’t provide an answer when CHS checked in during the Factoria grand opening last week. Though the Google search engine shows the store as now open from 7 AM to 10 PM daily, the spokesperson tells CHS the newly posted hours are “an error on the Google listing and inaccurate.”
Meanwhile, over the weekend community groups marked Juneteenth with a march across the Central District and a grand opening celebration for Jackson’s Catfish Corner across from the grocery store amid growing efforts to return more Black businesses to the neighborhood.
Retailers across the city are now preparing to ramp up to full capacity with the June 30th deadline for Washington’s full reopening from COVID-19 restrictions.
23rd and Jackson has also faced serious challenges as summer sets in with a deadly shooting earlier this month claiming the life of a 21-year-old.
CHS reported here in March on community meetings with developer Vulcan, and Amazon discussing neighborhood hopes for the new store including local hires and more affordable groceries.
Labor has been an issue for the nation’s reopening economy with increased attention on wages and benefits as workers have been slow to return to the workplace — especially in lower paying, higher labor jobs. In Washington, restaurant industry leaders have complained about a worker shortage.
After CHS broke news on the project a year earlier, Amazon finally acknowledged plans for its new grocery in January and posted the first job listings for the 23rd and Jackson store which now stands not far from the site of the Red Apple that was demolished in early 2018 to make way for the redevelopment.
As part of the opening of its first ever Amazon Fresh stores — larger, full-featured versions of the smaller stores like the one that opened on E Pike in 2020 — the company is hyping its “Just Walk Out” features enabled by high tech scanners, sensors, and cameras that allow customers to shop without waiting at the checkout and, of course, without the need for human checkers to tally things, bag your groceries, and talk to you about the weather.
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