On a humid afternoon in August, a few hundred shoppers lined up outside an Amazon Fresh supermarket in a Philadelphia suburb, eagerly awaiting the store's grand opening. A person in a banana costume ...

“Fresh Perspectives” is a Winsight Grocery Business column from Executive Editor Russell Redman, who will share insights on news, trends, people, issues and events in and around the grocery industry.

The approximately 225,000-square-foot store the retailer is planning near Chicago will sell groceries alongside general ...