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Special Report: Amazon Fresh - Woodland Park, NJ

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By Zachary
Amazon Fresh
Opened: November 7, 2024
Owner: Amazon
Previous Tenants: Pathmark (1970s-2010) > Fairway Market (2011-2020)
Cooperative: none
Location: 1510 US-46, Woodland Park, NJ
Photographed: November 8, 2024
After a long time of keeping locations dormant -- mostly built-out but not yet opened -- Amazon Fresh has resumed opening stores. They've refined the format, they say, and have redesigned the stores to be more appealing. I have pretty consistently disliked Amazon Fresh in the past -- but I gotta say, this is by far the best store of theirs I've visited. And if they're moving in this direction, I won't be disappointed.
The roughly 60,000 square foot store (one of the larger Amazon Fresh locations) opened on Thursday morning and I visited on Friday morning. It's a space originally occupied by Pathmark, later Fairway until their 2020 bankruptcy. Amazon Fresh announced they were moving in at the same time here as they did in Paramus, also a former Fairway. But the Paramus location opened in 2022, while this one sat vacant. In fact, in 2022, Amazon Fresh actually put up a sign at the store only to remove it shortly thereafter -- and then, in 2024, put up another identical sign. Hopefully they saved those letters.
A feature I haven't seen before in Amazon Fresh greets us immediately inside the entrance: a Krispy Kreme donut shop. A nice touch, and good differentiation (since most other supermarkets that have something like this have either a Dunkin' Donuts or a Starbucks). The layout is not that different from the other Amazon Fresh stores we've seen, with produce on the left side, meat and seafood (packaged only -- there's no service counters) in the back-left corner, deli and bakery on the back wall, and dairy in the back-right corner. Frozen is in the middle, with paper/cleaning, and HABA on the right side.
This store has the same decor package as what we've seen in Eatontown and Lodi -- the second generation of Amazon Fresh decor packages. Paramus has the first generation. Amazon Fresh has also eschewed the Just Walk Out technology of the first generation of stores in favor of the second generation's Dash Carts, which allow you to scan your items as you shop.
I was here pretty early in the morning, so I wouldn't take the lack of customers as a sign the store is doing poorly.
The produce department is noticeably bigger and more spacious than the other stores. This store overall is about 20,000 square feet bigger, and you can feel it. But it didn't feel too big, or like there was too much empty space.
The quality overall seemed just fine, and everything was nicely stocked throughout the store. I'd expect that on day 2, though. But there were some obvious areas for improvement, such as soggy or floppy leafy greens -- come on, for the second day? I also noticed a strangely small selection of whole wheat pasta, which doesn't seem like a particularly exotic item to me, and I noticed that the cat food I usually buy at ACME for $23.99 or Target for $21.49 or ShopRite for $22.89 was $28.99 here. For comparison, I regularly shop at Food Bazaar but never buy cat food there because it's so expensive -- it's $29.99 there. But Food Bazaar is a local chain of around 40 stores and Amazon is, well, Amazon. That's why I don't understand why everything is so expensive in the Amazon Fresh stores.
Still, this felt like a store where I wouldn't mind paying a little bit more. It felt like a pleasant store. What I've noticed, though, is that Amazon is not great with ongoing execution. The brand-new stores are nice and have good quality items, but they're not kept up even a few weeks into opening, like I saw with Lodi.
Still, I'm keeping an open mind. More competition is good.
This store is directly across the highway from a very old-school ShopRite that, like Nutley, has recently been remodeled and is extremely high-volume. Several reviews and comments online note that they'd rather shop at ShopRite.
Still, this is an attractive and well-thought-out store. Very different from some of the earlier Amazon Fresh stores that were unappealing.
The grocery aisles are pleasant enough, too, although like I said there were some odd things missing and some strangely high prices.
The deli and prepared foods all looked reasonably appealing, too, which is more than I could say for Lodi. We'll see if it stays this way.
I do really like this decor, though. It's really colorful and inviting in person.
Frozen foods roughly in the middle of the store.
And as I pointed out in Lodi, I like the consistent blue Prime callouts.
The bakery looks nice, but the products didn't look good at all and the selection was, again, odd. (Not a bagel in sight, for instance.)
But this store did have a case with several choices of loose pastries and baked goods, which other stores haven't had. I'm not clear if any of this is baked on-site, but I don't think so.
Packaged deli and dairy are on the back wall, with some additional dairy in the last aisle.
I like the look of the store, too. But if Amazon Fresh wants to be a serious grocery contender, they need to sharpen their product mix and pricing. They're operating more like an inexperienced independent than one of the largest companies in the world.
But this store is definitely the closest to success I've seen with this format. We'll see if they can keep it that way.
In the last aisle, a few shelves specifically called out storebrands. The Amazon Fresh, Happy Belly, and Aplenty items were here in the back area, and a set of shelves dedicated to 365 items is in front.
This feels like a good way to introduce a new store, when customers might not be familiar with the brands. But it also feels like something that could be removed later if the grocery aisles are reset.
Cleaning items on the front wall next to customer service. You can see the registers to the far right.
There's a cafe on the front wall here, although we're a bit far from the prepared foods area. (In some stores, prepared foods are on the right side of the store, Whole Foods-style.)
There's various registers for self-checkout, regular staffed checkout, and Dash Cart exits.
I'm cautiously optimistic about the format given this store, but like I noted on Lodi, I always seem to get my hopes up only to be disappointed. We'll just have to see! But you can tell the difference between a store like this and the Big Y in Westport, CT, which was originally slated to be an Amazon Fresh. You can see that store and several others here...
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