‘Amazon Fresh’ supermarket will open in Paramus

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed this week what had long been rumored: the e-commerce behemoth will be opening an “Amazon Fresh” supermarket in Paramus.

According to NorthJersey.com, the store will be in the former Fairway Market location on Ridgeway Avenue off Route 17.

The Amazon Fresh concept is a brick and mortar companion to their grocery delivery business.

According to the Amazon website, there are currently 12 of the stores nationally, with eight in California and four in Illinois. Along with the planned Paramus location, another one will be located in Woodland Park, again at the site of a former Fairway Market.

What is an Amazon Fresh market? Here’s the description the company provides:

Amazon Fresh is a new grocery store designed from the ground up to offer a seamless grocery shopping experience, whether customers are shopping in store or online. We’ve taken our decades of operations experience to deliver consistently low prices for all and FREE, same-day delivery for Prime members.

One of the unique features of Amazon Fresh is the “Dash Cart;” using a combination of computer vision algorithms and sensors to recognize what’s in your cart, allowing you to skip the checkout line.

The stores also have Alexa kiosks to help customers navigate the supermarket. You can also pick up and return other Amazon purchases.

According to Supermarket News, Amazon has 28 Fresh stores planned, ranging in size from 25,000-45,000 square feet. Amazon also owns 543 Whole Foods World Markets. No opening date has been announced for the two New Jersey Fresh sites.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.