Bob Vogel, director of retail operations for Santa Monica Seafood (SMS), had a good laugh when AmazonFresh first approached him about supplying fresh seafood for its Los Angeles Spotlight grocery delivery service.
“They came into Culver City, Calif., and were going to do a 28-mile delivery area. I thought, ‘Do they understand our freeway system?’” Vogel said with a chuckle.
However, after “tearing back the skin and looking at everything Amazon is doing” and testing fresh seafood delivery via AmazonFresh’s Los Angeles Spotlight this spring, Vogel and other company executives realized that the online retail giant’s fulfillment process was sound and provides an opportunity for ancillary income.
“It is a no brainer: We have the labor in place and we have the product. It’s a nice way to stay current and be able to maintain inflationary growth and expand the brand in a convenient way for those who are challenged with driving,” Vogel said.
The income from AmazonFresh is “very auxiliary” for the California distributor, which also operates two retail stores; it’s an extension of its prepared, grab-and-go items, such as seafood party platters.
Click here to read the full story that ran in the September issue of SeaFood Business >
