I went to the latest version of Amazon Fresh and can’t see what sets it apart from other grocery stores

I picked an Amazon Fresh location in Alexandria, Virginia. It opened in July and occupies a space that used to host a supermarket run by Shoppers Food, a Washington, DC-area chain, according to local news website ALXNow. It is located just a couple of miles from Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington.

If you don’t want to visit a store, you can also order from Amazon Fresh online and pick up your groceries or have them delivered to your home.

Picking up your order at an Amazon Fresh store is free regardless of whether or not you have a Prime membership, per Amazon’s website. Delivery for Prime members involves paying a fee of at least $6.95 if your order is under $100 with a two-hour delivery window (it’s free if your order is worth more than $100).

At the Amazon Fresh store I visited, there is a separate entrance to the store just for employees handling pickup orders. In the parking lot, pavement markings direct customers stopping by for orders to designated parking spots.

I showed up a little after 8 am — when the store opens — on a weekday, so there were plenty of carts available.

Amazon is trying to get more customers to use Dash Carts this year. They use sensors and computers to track what shoppers place inside of them and charge a customer’s Amazon account accordingly.

As I stepped into the store, I first encountered the produce section, just like you do at many other grocery stores.

It was also clear to me that this store was larger than other Amazon Fresh locations at about 50,000 square feet, according to ALXNow. Amazon previously said that Fresh stores range in size from 25,000 to 51,000 square feet.

Above a cooler stocked with berries, I found this sign promoting a parfait recipe and encouraging me to scan a QR code.

I had the option to add the ingredients for the parfait to my virtual shopping cart on Amazon as well as view the recipe.

I also saw ads on these screens for Amazon Fresh’s store-brand products.

These screens are meant to help shoppers find specific products within an aisle. While most were functioning and correct, a few that I saw weren’t working or, like this one, didn’t match what was on the shelf — note the bottles of red wine next to the screen that reads “white wines.”

I picked up these Amazon Basics wipes since they were cheaper than the name brands next to them on the shelf.

This Aplenty white cheddar cheese was cheaper than the similar Kerrygold next to it.

The salad bar was well-stocked hours before lunch or dinner time.

The Amazon Kitchen breakfast wrap I picked included chicken chorizo, refried beans, scrambled eggs, pepper jack cheese, and poblano chiles. It cost $4.49 with a Prime membership, or $4.99 without one.

The wrap tasted fine, but it wasn’t particularly tasty or well-seasoned.

I also noticed bare or empty shelves for some grocery staples that tend to be in high demand, such as bottled water.

An Amazon spokesperson said: “As this new Amazon Fresh store has only been open for a few weeks, we continue to learn and adapt our forecasts based on customer shopping patterns and preferences.”

I spotted several deals that only Amazon Prime members could get at this Amazon Fresh store.

A few, such as these packs of Bubly sparkling water, were slightly cheaper than sales I had seen the day before at my local supermarket, which mid-Atlantic grocer Giant operates. Many of Amazon’s own-brand products were cheaper than their name-brand equivalents, though that’s common at many grocery stores.

Overall, few items seemed significantly cheaper than other nearby stores.

The same week I visited this Amazon Fresh store, Amazon said it would offer Prime members new discounts on “3,000 essential grocery items” at Amazon Fresh. The company is also launching Amazon Saver, a new “value” store brand.

I had the choice of using self-checkout kiosks, a traditional checkout staffed by a human, or the Dash Cart, which would have kept track of my purchases as I shopped.

Self-checkout kiosks were one of the changes Amazon said it would roll out at some Fresh stores last year. I was able to check out in a few minutes without problems.

I also could use Amazon One, the company’s palm-based payment technology. If you enroll ahead of your shopping trip, Amazon One links your payment details — and your Prime account — to your palm, which you can scan at checkout.

I opted to pay using the credit card reader at the kiosk. There’s also an option to get Prime discounts by scanning a code on your phone through the Amazon app, as an employee standing nearby reminded me as I rang up my purchases. (Whole Foods stores have a similar system).

This store was a lot larger — and had a wider selection of items — than the Amazon Fresh location I visited one year ago. That made it seem more like a viable choice for weekly grocery trips.

There were also some of the changes that Amazon mentioned last year, such as the self-checkout kiosks. But other elements weren’t present. Amazon had said, for instance, that Fresh stores would include an in-store Krispy Kreme doughnut counter, though I didn’t see one at this location.

An Amazon spokesperson said that the company has opened other stores with Krispy Kreme counters, such as the one in Roseville, California. The spokesperson added: “We will look to add Krispy Kreme Doughnut Shops at select Amazon Fresh stores over time, depending on a variety of factors like store layout.”

Overall, like the store I visited last year, it wasn’t remarkable in any way. I hadn’t seen many products or prices that would entice me to make Amazon Fresh a weekly stop on my grocery runs.

Many shoppers go to Amazon’s website to order everything from books to electronics. The company has spent several years trying to add groceries to that list.

Perhaps the discounts for Prime members will draw some people to the store — about 75% of all US shoppers had a Prime membership as of earlier this year.

But this Amazon Fresh store didn’t have much you couldn’t get elsewhere. It’s also located in an area where shoppers have lots of choices for buying food: Within a two-mile radius, there are two grocery stores run by Kroger-owned Harris Teeter, a Giant Food supermarket, an Aldi, a Lidl Express, a Safeway, two local organic markets, and a Target.

As I headed out of the store, I thought about how Phil Lempert, a food industry analyst and editor at Supermarket Guru, summed up his opinion on Amazon Fresh stores for a story I wrote in June: “I am a major Amazon.com shopper,” Lempert said. “I could not live without Amazon.com. I can live without Amazon Fresh.”

An Amazon spokesperson said that the company “optimized this store’s design and layout to offer a vast selection of the top national brands, as well as high-quality protein and produce,” private-label items like the wipes and aged cheddar that I found, as well as baked goods like chocolate chip cookies and turnovers. The goal is to “appeal to a wide range of customers,” the spokesperson said.