Amazon Fresh finally opening two more Long Island locations

The long-awaited opening dates of two new Amazon Fresh grocery stores on Long Island have been announced.

Amazon Fresh will open a 33,340-square-foot store in Manetto Hill Plaza at 50 Manetto Hill Road in Plainview and a 42,900-square-foot store in Suffolk Plaza at 4054 Nesconset Highway in East Setauket on Thursday, Oct. 24.

Though the spaces were leased about two years ago, they stood vacant while the company paused its planned expansion. The Plainview space was formerly occupied by a Fairway Market before it closed in 2020 and the East Setauket space had been occupied by a Waldbaum’s supermarket that closed in 2015.

The two new Amazon Fresh stores join the chain’s first Long Island location at 3620 Long Beach Road in Oceanside that opened in 2022. At 3017 North Ocean Ave. in Farmingville, a newly constructed 35,000-square-foot store for Amazon Fresh was completed last year but remains vacant.

At least 22 Amazon Fresh supermarkets across the country remain vacant or unopened, according to published reports, and several lawsuits for breach of contract and lease terminations have been filed.

During the company’s roll-out pause, the store’s model was revamped. This spring Amazon announced it was removingits Just Walk Out cashier-less checkout technologyat Amazon Fresh stores and Whole Foods markets and replacing it with computerized Dash Carts, which digitally track and add upitems as customers shop.

Amazon has been trying to expand into the grocery sector for a while. In 2017 it acquired Whole Foods for $13.7 billion and launched the Amazon Fresh concept in California in 2020. However, Amazon had only captured 1.4 percent of the U.S. grocery market by 2023, compared with Walmart, which had claimed 23.6 percent of the pie, according to CNBC.

The company is seeking to expandits grocery customer base by boosting its discounts. Amazon Freshrecently announcedit expanded its Prime savings program by offering savings on over 3,000 grocery items for Prime members, including up to 50 percent off on eight to 15 grocery itemsthat rotate each week, according to a company statement.

Amazon Fresh will be donating surplus food fromits new Long Islandstores to local food bank partners. The East Setauket store will donate surplus food to Long Island Cares and the Plainview store will donate surplus food to Island Harvest Food Bank, according to the statement.

The new Amazon Fresh stores will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week.

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