Amazon Fresh Comes To Northridge

NORTHRIDGE, CA — Amazon opened its third Fresh store in Northridge Thursday, on the site of a former Whole Foods at 19340 Rinaldi Street in the Porter Ranch Shopping Center.

Whole Foods, which is owned by Amazon, moved last year to the Vineyards at Porter Ranch shopping center.

The 30,000-square-foot store is the smallest of the three Amazon Fresh locations so far. Like the other two stores — a 35,000-square-foot store in Woodland Hills that opened in mid-September and a 40,000-square foot location in Irvine that opened in late October — the Northridge store will carry name brand products in addition to Amazon private label brands like Fresh, Cursive, and Whole Foods 365.

Amazon's take on the traditional supermarket, the store will offer a broad selection of meat, seafood, produce, baked goods, and made-to-order pizzas and rotisserie chickens. According to the company, prices will be relatively low, with bananas at 15 cents, bread at 89 cents a loaf, and rotisserie chickens for $4.97. This stands in contrast to pricier Whole Foods, which focuses more on health foods and specialty brands. Amazon Fresh stores are rapidly expanding all over the country, and the company has confirmed that a North Hollywood location will open soon.

Amazon says that its Northridge location will employ hundreds of people at starting wages of $15.35 an hour.

The store will offer same-day delivery and pickup for Amazon Prime members. Customers can also skip waiting in line by using Amazon Dash Carts technology, which automatically tallies items when customers place them in their carts. When customers leave, purchases are automatically charged to the debit or credit card associated with their Amazon account.

Alexa, an Amazon robot assistant, will also help shoppers find items .

The Northridge store will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. Between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., the store will be open exclusively for seniors 60 and older and people with disabilities. Stores are currently operating at 50 percent capacity, and face masks are required of customers. Disposable face masks are available for customers. All employees and vendors are temperature checked upon entering the store, according to the company.