Amazon’s bright green grocery trucks might finally make their way to the heart of California’s tech world.
All Things D reported today that Amazon Fresh may be opening for business in the Bay Area on December 10, according to an anonymous source. If that’s the case, the launch will happen six months after it launched the service in Los Angeles. Recently, a few eagle-eyed Twitter users have spotted the service’s iconic green trucks tooling around San Francisco’s streets, pointing to an imminent rollout.
It’s certainly not an unexpected move. Earlier this year, Amazon announced a new position at a Tracy, Calif. warehouse that pointed towards an Amazon Fresh rollout in the Bay Area, and the high population of tech folks (as well as Amazon’s own employees at A9 Research and Lab126) makes it a logical market for the grocery service.
Still, Amazon won’t be able to take over the Bay without a fight. It will also be competing against companies like Safeway, Google Shopping Express and Instacart, a Sequoia-backed startup run by a former Amazon employee.
Amazon Fresh was discussed in the 60 Minutes piece on Jeff Bezos this past Sunday, and when considered in light of the drone delivery system, one might think delivering groceries by truck is downright easy.
But it is a logistical challenge for sure, one of the reasons why Amazon tested the concept for a good five years in Seattle before rolling out in LA.
“What’s not to love. You order the groceries online, and we deliver them to your door,” Bezos said with a laugh. “But that’s very expensive…. If we can make this model work, it will be great, because it extends the range of products that we can sell.”
