Ealing newsagent concerned by Amazon grocery store opening

The owner of Swami Express Newsagents, Jayesh Patel, said the opening of the Amazon Fresh store will have a bigger impact on his business than the pandemic. 

Long queues were seen outside Amazon Fresh, located at the street entrance of Ealing shopping centre, after it opened yesterday.

Jayesh said: “Ealing Council should not have given it permission to open the store there.

“It is not a good idea at all, it is not going to help small businesses.

“For small businesses, like my business, with lockdown we’re struggling to pay the bills.”

Amazon Fresh sells prepared meals, groceries and Amazon devices. 

Amazon sales for 2020 reached $386bn, up from $280bn a year earlier, and owner Jeff Bezos, is currently the richest man in the world.

Jayesh's shop - Swami Express

Jayesh said his store, located on Ealing Broadway and opened in 2005, saw a rise in customers before the pandemic. 

“All the new buildings came up, we started to get busy,” he said.

“Then with the pandemic and lockdown, the footfall has completely gone down.”

Jayesh revealed the newsagents relied on commuters coming in and out of Ealing Broadway, and this had reduced due to the pandemic.

The newsagent owner also commented that the opening of the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush in 2008 meant “less people” were coming to Ealing.

He said: “We were easily surviving, used to make money.

“Once Westfield opened, the business did get affected.”

The new Amazon Fresh store allows visitors to pick up their items and leave without having to check out at the till. 

Visitors to the Amazon Fresh store must scan a QR code from their Amazon app when entering and are automatically billed from when they leave. 

Technology in the store, including ceiling cameras and shelf weight sensors, identify the items shoppers pick from the shelves.

A visitor to the store yesterday said: “It’s a new experience and a quicker shopping experience.

“Amazon does sometimes get known for taking away from the high street so hopefully it’s not going to do that.

“I think it will benefit the high street.

“Ealing for a while has needed some new things in the area, especially with Crossrail coming and all the new flats, I definitely think this will add to it and hopefully more businesses will look to start stuff here as well.”

An Ealing Council spokesperson said: “No council, including Ealing, has the power to decide which individual retailer uses a premises, or to block businesses from trading in our area.

“Planning powers enable councils to decide how buildings look and their broad use. The shop in question is in our town centre in a shopping centre and therefore already was and is expected to be used as a shop."