An Amazon Fresh grocery store is finally opening in Tinley Park after fits and starts, with customers being welcomed starting at 8 a.m. Aug. 22.
Amazon Fresh is the company’s 11th location in Illinois, and opened after delays that included Amazon itself holding back on grocery openings. There is also an Amazon Fresh in Oak Lawn.
The 38,000-square-foot store is an anchor in an overhaul of the Tinley Park Plaza shopping center, southeast of 159th Street and Harlem Avenue, and plans for the store had been announced in the summer 2022.
The store, at 16017 S. Harlem Ave., will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. throughout the week, according to a news release from the company.
Signs had, literally, pointed to an opening in spring 2023, and along with a sign signaling the spring debut a large Amazon Fresh sign had been put up on the building’s exterior above the entrance in 2022. Then it was indicated an opening had been pushed back to sometime this year. The exterior sign was taken down.
Brixmor Property Group is revamping the shopping center Amazon is opening in, and it was viewed as a catalyst for drawing other tenants.
Tenants in Tinley Park Plaza include Burlington, Bath & Body Works, Planet Fitness and The Tile Shop. Five Below and Ross are expected to move into the center.
Burlington relocated from space on the south side of 159th east of Harlem, and Floor & Decor moved into that spot.
Grocer Walt’s had operated in a large anchor space in the portion of the shopping center just to the south of Amazon. It had been a tenant since 1984 and closed in June 2021.
That grocery space is part of a second phase of redevelopment now underway.
The slowdown in opening of Amazon Fresh stores around the country was a decision on the part of Amazon to hold back on new stores in the pipeline.
In an earnings call in February 2023, Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy discussed business segments, including groceries and Fresh stores.
He said the company is “doing a fair bit of experimentation today in those stores to try to find a format that we think resonates with customers.”
“We’ve decided over the last year or so that we’re not going to expand the physical Fresh doors until we have that equation with differentiation and economic value that we like, but we’re optimistic we’re going to find that in 2023,” Jassy said at the time.
Fresh Stores represent Amazon’s biggest foray into physical retail space since buying Whole Foods in 2017.
Other Chicago area Fresh Stores are in Arlington Heights, opened last month, as well as Bloomingdale, Naperville and Schaumburg.
Amazon has a number of stores slated to open Aug. 22, including in California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There are now a bit more than 40 stores nationwide.
Along with other brands, Amazon stores stock the company’s private label brands such as Aplenty, Fresh Brand, and 365 by Whole Foods Market.
The company said the Tinley Park store will feature the company’s latest brick-and-mortar design unveiled last year in select Chicago and Southern California stores.
Amazon said the Tinley Park store will also offer the retailer’s Dash Cart and Amazon One shopping and payment technology.
Dash Cart allows shoppers to scan and weigh items as they shop, with a real-time receipt displayed on the cart’s screen showing all the items in the cart and total price. Shoppers exit the store through a designated Dash Cart lane, receiving an emailed receipt, according to the company.
Amazon One is a touchless payment system that employs biometrics to scan a customer’s palm to create a unique palm signature that can be read by an Amazon One scanner for grocery payment, according to the company.
As Amazon prepares to debut, work has been slowed on a nearby Pete’s Fresh Market grocery store at Harlem and 163rd Street.
Pete’s had originally expected to be in the store by Sept. 1, 2022, but problems such as procuring materials are delaying the opening until next spring.
Pete’s has locations in the south and southwest suburbs including Bridgeview, Calumet City, Evergreen Park, Lemont and Matteson.
Along with Tinley Park, the Chicago-area chain has stores either underway or planned in New Lenox, Orland Park and Palos Heights.
