Dive Brief:

• Amazon Fresh opened its second store Thursday in Irvine, California, just a few weeks after the new grocery format debuted in Woodland Hills, California, according to a company spokesperson. 
• The 40,000-square-foot supermarket, which is open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. with 7 to 8 a.m. reserved for high-risk customers, is offering deals like $2.69 for a 12-pack of Coca-Cola and $5.79 for a 55-count Halloween candy bag, according to the store's circular.
• Amazon is ramping up its brick-and-mortar grocery store presence, debuting two new grocery store formats this year. The e-commerce giant has plans to open more Amazon Fresh stores in the Los Angeles and Chicago metro areas, along with debuting a new Go Grocery store in the Washington, D.C. area. 

Dive Insight:

Amazon Fresh welcomed shoppers to its second store on Thursday with a focus on low prices as well as Amazon technology like Dash Carts and Alexa features to help customers shop the aisles.

Like the first Fresh store that opened in Woodland Hills, California, the Irvine location served as a dark store to fulfill online grocery orders before opening to be public, helping Amazon meet the surge in e-commerce demand fueled by the pandemic.

The Fresh format combines a conventional supermarket experience, including low prices, with AI-driven technology and perks supporting Amazon Prime, like free same-day delivery and pickup for Prime members, a company spokesperson said in an email. 

Shoppers can find typical grocery store offerings like produce, meat and seafood, along with prepared foods made fresh daily, like bread and made-to-order pizzas. The store features the 365 by Whole Foods Market organics brand alongside national and local brands and Amazon's exclusive brands including Fresh and Cursive. Regional products include Duke's Mayo, Ellenos Yogurt and Boston Chowda. 

To help combat food insecurity, Amazon Fresh has donated more than 180,000 pounds of surplus food — equivalent to more than 150,000 meals — to local food banks since the Irvine store started serving as a dark store.

Amazon is expanding its physical grocery stores this year, introducing two new formats, Fresh and Go Grocery, and opening roughly a dozen new Whole Foods locations. Currently, the e-commerce giant is on a hiring spree for upcoming grocery stores in the metro areas of Chicago and Los Angeles. The company has confirmed four upcoming locations in the Chicago area and job listings show Amazon Fresh is plotting six stores in the Los Angeles area in addition to its Irvine and Woodland Hills locations. Reports indicate two additional L.A. area stores are also in the works in Thousand Oaks and La Verne, with the latter reportedly set to share space with a Kohl's department store.

Amazon is also planning to have Go Grocery come to the Washington, D.C. area after two Go Grocery stores opened this year in Washington state.