An Amazon Fresh grocery store is scheduled to open March 27 in Silver Spring’s White Oak community, the company confirmed Tuesday.
“[We] look forward to serving the community with high-quality grocery items at a great value,” Amazon spokesperson Griffin Buch said in an email to Bethesda Today.
The MoCo Show first reported the opening date for White Oak’s Amazon Fresh store.
The grocery store is in the White Oak Town Center at 12345 Columbia Pike, which is also home to Jersey Mike’s Subs, Starbucks, a county-owned Oak Barrel & Vine liquor store and the recently opened First Watch restaurant. The White Oak location will be the fourth Amazon Fresh to open in Montgomery County and the first in Silver Spring.
In 2023, Amazon paused its plans for a national Amazon Fresh expansion plans — along with plans to open the 38,000-square-foot store in Silver Spring — due to concerns about the grocery store’s competitiveness. The decision stemmed from concerns about the grocer’s competitiveness, but last year the plans were rebooted the Washington Business Journal reported.
Amazon Fresh offers grocery items and prepared foods for in-store shopping, pickup and delivery. Anyone can shop at Amazon Fresh stores, although Amazon Prime members are eligible for free same-day delivery and pickup, according to Amazon’s website.
The grocery store also offers an optional high-tech shopping experience. In addition to shopping in a traditional fashion, customers can use Amazon’s smart shopping cart known as a Dash Cart. According to the company’s website, the Dash Cart uses sensors and computer algorithms to identify items dropped into the cart and adds up the cost. Amazon touts the Dash Cart as a way to make grocery shopping take less time.
To use the Dash Cart, shoppers must sign in to an Amazon app downloaded on their phones and scan a QR code on the cart’s screen, according to the website. When customers are done shopping, they can skip the checkout line and exit through the store’s Dash Cart Lane. When exiting in the lane, a sensor will recognize the cart and charge the purchases to the Amazon account linked to it.
Amazon Fresh opened its first Maryland grocery store in Chevy Chase at 5463 Wisconsin Ave. in August 2021. About a year later, another Amazon Fresh opened in the Chevy Chase Lake mixed-use development at 8525 Chevy Chase Lake Terrace. In August 2024, the county’s third Amazon Fresh opened at 15790 Shady Grove Road in Gaithersburg, the MoCo Show reported.
