From our correspondent in Washington.

According to the Wall Street Journal , Amazon is preparing the opening of a new chain of supermarkets selling fresh produce. The giant of online commerce has determined that it needs to serve a client base that is not going to be used in the chain of supermarkets, organic Whole Foods, he bought out in 2017. It is not, therefore, compete with Whole Foods, but to target another niche, distributing products that are not organic. The range of products distributed by Amazon in this new channel would therefore be wider than at Whole Foods.

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The firm of Jeff Bezos account and open its first new store in Los Angeles towards the end of the year. In addition, it has initiated negotiations to sign leases in order to usher in the supermarkets in two other cities next year. It is not yet known what changes can we expect these new stores, or what name they will bear. It is also possible that Amazon sign leases in a first time to retain a property located in an interesting place, and then later decides to go somewhere else or leave this place.

To reach its goal of opening in cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Washington DC and Philadelphia, Amazon is to buy from small local chain supermarket that already has a dozen stores. A priori, the average size of new supermarkets would be in the order of 3250 m2, i.e. almost two times less than the supermarket average american.

In order to open up in existing malls, Amazon has been negotiating the freedom to sell all kinds of products, particularly beauty products, which is contrary to the usages of some of the centres that welcome multiple specialty shops who do not wish to be confronted directly by a large distributor.

It is known that Amazon has launched several experiments, delivery services, with mixed results. To date there are already ten stores Amazon Go in cities such as Seattle, Chicago and San Francisco, testing a particular technology, enabling customers to take their purchases without a cashier.