Amazon Fresh coming to Elk Grove, sources say. Here’s where the new supermarket will be
Amazon Fresh’s second Sacramento-area location will be in Elk Grove, several sources confirm to The Sacramento Bee.
The sources, who were not authorized to comment on the project, confirmed speculation that had surrounded the nearly 42,000-square-foot project at the busy The Ridge retail center at Elk Grove Boulevard and Bruceville Road for nearly a year as construction continued.
Crews have been on the job at The Ridge since moving dirt last spring. Amazon Fresh’s Elk Grove site sits in the same shopping center as Costco and would be a 41,764 square-foot plan that includes more than 25,000 square feet of sales floor, according to a building permit application from the city.
The store’s outer shell in the concept’s gray-and-spring-green color scheme is largely complete, parking lots have been laid out, and signage for the cosmetics brand Sephora also appears.
Amazon’s interest in the Sacramento-area market, however, is no secret.
As early as March 2021, Bloomberg reported on plans for Fresh locations across the country, including sites in the capital region.
Amazon Fresh opened its first location in Woodland Hills in September 2020 and has since been joined by stores in nine other California locations in greater Los Angeles and Orange County. Another 13 Fresh locations are in Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington state and Washington, D.C.
In January, The Bee learned Roseville would be Amazon Fresh’s first Northern California location, with a Stanford Ranch Road site that once was home to a Toys R Us. Roseville planning officials said last month that they were reviewing permit requests for exterior signage; and, last year, officials approved a building permit for the Stanford Ranch Road site.
The launch date of both stores is not known, and officials with Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Fresh store concept features voice-activated Alexa features, such as Ask Alexa, that help shoppers find store items; app-aided shopping; and Amazon Dash Cart, which allows shoppers to bypass checkout lines. Same-day delivery and pick-up are also available.
Amazon Fresh will enter a competitive grocery corridor along Elk Grove Boulevard, including Trader Joe’s in the neighboring Elk Grove Commons shopping center; and a Raley’s location less than a mile to the west at Elk Grove and Franklin boulevards. Woodland-based Nugget Markets, whose location is a block away on Elk Grove Boulevard’s Laguna Promenade shopping center, is, perhaps, the concept’s most direct comparison in the city, Amazon Fresh store images suggest.
Grocery rivals Amazon and Costco show Elk Grove’s growing attention in the eyes of retail heavyweights. Issaquah, Washington-based Costco opened its 150,000 square-foot Elk Grove location in September 2018.
Only seven miles from the nearest Sacramento-area site, the busy Elk Grove warehouse store, city officials here say, is the closest to a neighboring Costco location in the country.
Meanwhile, more storefronts continue to pop up at The Ridge, including the construction of a Buffalo Wild Wings and a Mayweather Boxing Fitness, the fitness concept that bears boxing champion Floyd Mayweather’s name.
Elk Grove and Sacramento International Airport are also home to two Amazon fulfillment centers. Elk Grove’s 150,000-square-foot hub and distribution center on Union Park Way employs about 500. The Sacramento International Airport site employs at least 4,000 more.
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
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