Amazon Fresh opens today in Bloomingdale

The suburbs' newest Amazon Fresh grocery store will open today in Bloomingdale.

Mayor Franco Coladipietro and an Amazon spokesman confirmed the opening of the store at 404 Army Trail Road, near the intersection of Army Trail Road and Gary Avenue at the site of a former Toys R Us.

The Bloomingdale store will be the third of its kind in the Chicago area, alongside stores that opened in December in Naperville and in January in Schaumburg.

“We're excited to open the doors to the Amazon Fresh Bloomingdale store on Thursday,” an Amazon spokesman said. The company touts a “seamless grocery shopping experience” in the store and online, “consistently low prices” and free same-day delivery and pickup for Amazon Prime members.

The store will be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, with the first hour reserved for customers who are age 60 or older, those with disabilities and those whom the CDC defines as high-risk individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amazon Fresh is separate from Whole Foods, which also is owned by Amazon. The first location opened in Woodland Hills, California.

At Amazon Fresh stores, customers can use traditional shopping carts and go through a traditional checkout. They also have the option to use the Dash Cart, a shopping cart equipped with cameras and sensors to detect and tally items as they are placed in the cart. A credit card is billed as the customer leaves the store, and a receipt is emailed.

In addition, stores will be integrated with Amazon Alexa for grocery lists.