Amazon Fresh Supermarket Opens in Northridge

Northridge is the latest spot in the Valley to host Amazon.com Inc., which opened an Amazon Fresh grocery store Thursday at 19340 Rinaldi St. in the Porter Ranch Shopping Center.The new grocery banner fills a 30,000-square-foot vacancy left behind by Whole Foods Market, which relocated to the neighboring Vineyards at Porter Ranch shopping center. Whole Foods is also owned by Amazon.While Whole Foods specializes in health-forward foods and private-label products, Amazon Fresh is the company’s take on a traditional supermarket. It carries name brand products as well as those sold under Amazon’s private label brands, including Fresh, Cursive and Whole Foods’ 365.The Northridge store is the third Amazon Fresh location. The brand’s inaugural store opened in Woodland Hills in September, and an Irvine location followed in October.All three Amazon Fresh stores are operating at 50 percent capacity as a coronavirus safety measure.Amazon Fresh uses technology as a differentiator, namely through its Amazon Dash Cart feature. The store’s shopping carts use sensors and algorithms to identify which items shoppers pick, then charge their debit or credit card automatically when they leave the store, eliminating the checkout process. Also located throughout the stores are Amazon Echo Show devices, which shoppers can use to ask virtual assistant Alexa for help locating items.Amazon has confirmed it plans to open an Amazon Fresh store in North Hollywood, but hasn’t revealed a timeline for that launch.