Amazon Fresh, the grocery store chain the tech giant operates along with its Whole Foods markets, will open a new location in Bensalem later this month after lengthy delays that left the store's fate in question.
The Amazon Fresh store at 1837 Street Road, in the Brookwood Shopping Center, is slated to open Aug. 22. Amazon Fresh stores are billed as affordable markets with convenient delivery and checkout options. Customers with Amazon Prime memberships can get savings on hundreds of items, in addition to rotating discounts applied across the store.
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The new Amazon Fresh in Bensalem will be open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Amazon Fresh currently just over 40 locations nationwide. There are two in Pennsylvania at shopping centers in Warrington, Bucks County and Broomall, Delaware County. Previously announced plans to open other stores in the Philadelphia region have been slow to progress — including the Bensalem location — because of struggles the company encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Construction permits were issued for the Bensalem store in March 2021 and Amazon Fresh signage was installed after an initial buildout, but later removed. After refrigeration work was completed in February, the property sat vacant for months before the company confirmed the opening date on Wednesday night.
Amazon had paused new openings last year amid struggles to gain traction. After closing several of its existing stores, Amazon said it would selectively open new stores moving forward. The 42,000-square-foot store in Bensalem has a new design that was introduced in Chicago and Southern California last year.
Earlier this year, Amazon Fresh altered some of the tech-forward features that the company said would be a hallmark of its stores when they debuted in 2020. The "Just Walk Out" feature, which enabled customers to pay for their groceries without stopping at a register, was scrapped in favor of new Dash Carts that allow shoppers to scan their items and keep a running receipt as they go.
The Bensalem store's opening could be a sign that Amazon Fresh soon will open some of the other Philadelphia-area stores where the company had signed leases. There have been indications that a long-planned store in Northern Liberties, at the corner of Fifth and Spring Gardens streets, could be moving in that direction. The company also had applied for a liquor license at a location in the Red Lion Plaza in Northeast Philadelphia, but Amazon Fresh has not said whether it still plans to open a store there.
In the Philly suburbs, Amazon previously had shared plans for stores in Langhorne, Bucks County and Havertown, Delaware County. Delays to open another store planned in Willow Grove, Montgomery County led to a lawsuit filed against Amazon last year by developer Federal Realty Investment Trust. Amazon then filed a countersuit against the developer.
