Up Close and Outside the New Amazon Fresh Chicago

The newest Amazon Fresh store in Naperville, Ill., which opened Dec. 10, is attracting some brisk business in spite of the pandemic. The 35,000-square-foot Chicagoland store at 3116 S. Route 59 is the fifth Amazon Fresh store location to open its doors to the public, and the first in Illinois. Amazon’s four previous locations are all in Southern California (Woodland Hills, Irvine, North Hollywood and Northridge). For more on those locations, click here. 

Billing itself as a “low-priced” grocery store, Amazon Fresh Naperville is set to offer highly competitive prices on items such as 15-cent bananas; 89-cent freshly baked bread; $1.79 freshly baked pizza slices; and $4.97 rotisserie chickens. Signage outside the store invites customers to head inside for a bite.

The Naperville Amazon Fresh also features the same “seamless grocery shopping experience” of its California stores, with free same-day delivery and pickup for Prime members; the Amazon Dash Cart, which enables customers to skip the checkout line; and new Alexa features designed to help customers manage their shopping lists and better navigate store aisles.

And like its other locations, the Naperville Amazon Fresh will offer a wide assortment of national brands; produce, meat and seafood; a range of prepared foods made fresh in-store every day; along with 365 by Whole Foods Market organics products and local brands such as Turano Baking Co., Oberweis Dairy, and Revolution Brewing. The new store will also carry Amazon-exclusive brands like Fresh and Cursive wines. If shoppers need help finding these items, they can ask Alexa at an in-store kiosk.

For those who want to pass on Amazon Fresh’s contactless checkout, traditional cashiers are in place. According to Amazon, its move into Naperville will create hundreds of high-quality local jobs, with a starting wage of $15 and comprehensive benefits on day one. “We’re also supporting the Naperville community by donating surplus food from the Amazon Fresh store to local food banks. We have already donated over 165,000 pounds of food (equivalent to over 135,000 meals) since this location opened as an online-only store,” says Amazon Fresh.