Amazon Picks Southern California for Second Grocery-Concept Site

(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc. is planning to open a new grocery store in Irvine, California, the second confirmed location for an as-yet-unnamed retail concept separate from the company’s Whole Foods Market chain.

Amazon job postings listed this week show the retailer is hiring for managers and grocery staffers for a store in the city, located southeast of Los Angeles in Orange County. An Amazon spokeswoman confirmed plans to open a store in Irvine this year.

Amazon last year said it would launch a new supermarket, also distinct from the Amazon Go cashierless convenience stores, starting with a store in the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. The company’s plans in nearby Irvine had been the subject of speculation since Amazon began renovating a former Babies “R” Us there. The company has received a liquor license for the location under the name “Amazon Fresh,” the same name as its grocery delivery service.

Photos of the Woodland Hills store and planning documents appear to show a conventional supermarket layout, with space for a pickup-and-returns counter. Industry analysts still expect Amazon, which has tried to avoid copycat ideas as it moves into physical retail, to bring to the store an element of high-tech shopping or automation.

Amazon has also leased grocery store space in the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Encino and Thousand Oaks, sources familiar with the deals have told Bloomberg.

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