Amazon to open small stores, online supermarket in Australia

One of the world's biggest retailers, Amazon, is on track to launch bricks and mortar grocery stores and an online supermarket in Australia within two years. An Amazon supermarket would be different to a typical Australian supermarket, if it is built as once advocated by an executive supporting Amazon's grocery rollout globally, Brittain Ladd. It would be smaller than a Woolworths or Coles; similar in size to an Aldi store. An Amazon supermarket is expected to stock only the items people like to inspect before purchasing. Customers would also have the option of ordering groceries online and then using drive-thru lanes to pick up their groceries from the store. The online giant has identified grocery as a growth opportunity and is expected to launch its grocery business in Singapore and South East Asia around the same time as launching in Australia. Amazon.com Inc. was founded and is led by Jeff Bezos, one of the world's richest people and estimated by Forbes to be worth $US64 billion (over AED 235billion). (Madeleine Heffernan/Sydney Morning Herald)