Wait, What? Amazon is getting into the Grocery Business to the Tune of 2000 stores in a Decade?

This is a strange development indeed.

Amazon shares were up slightly after reports that the e-commerce giant envisions opening more than 2,000 of its Amazon Fresh grocery stores over the next decade. Earlier Monday, the company announced the launch of its new Amazon Go stores, which will have no registers. Instead, shoppers scan into the store with their free Amazon Go app, shop as normal, and leave the store with the items billed to their Amazon.com account.

I always thought this would be the store of the future. You just pick up what you need and walk out of the store and your account is automatically billed. However, going head-to-head against bigger grocery stores might be difficult since those stores provide more choice. Maybe if these Amazon Fresh/Go stores have a smaller footprint there would be more around. More of a bodega than an actual Kroger or Safeway.

I would love to pop into an Amazon Fresh and buy European cheeses, fresh baked bread and deli cold cuts and just walk out of the door with them and it charges my Amazon account. However, I would probably not go there to buy detergent or ingredients for a meal unless things were way cheaper then Safeway or Foodland.