Why Save Mart Is Adding Amazon Returns Kiosks | Fast Five Shorts

Save Mart and Amazon are partnering on in store return kiosks.

According to chainsaw age, the SaveMart companies is implementing Amazon return kiosks across its SaveMart Lucky and FoodMax banners after a successful pilot program.

I cannot say pilot for the life of me Pilot program in 15 stores across California and Nevada.

The service expanded to 140 additional stores by the end of December.

Kiosk will be available at all remaining stores by February 2026.

The program allows customers to return eligible Amazon items during their grocery run with no shipping box, tape or label required.

Bags and labels are provided at the kiosk where customers scan a QR code, bag their items and drop them off securely.

And what do you think of Amazon return kiosks at SaveMart, both for Save Mart and also for Amazon?

I love it.

I think that.

Do you need a person behind the desk that's taken up time to, to accept all of these Amazon returns that are flooding these retailers?

I don't think so.

I think that we've reached a stage in consumer adoption where they're used to, okay, I scan a QR code, here's my package.

Especially without having to do boxes or labeling.

I think, you know, if, if this setup is working in the test stores that Save Mart has been doing this in already, they've, they've kind of evaluated all the things from returns fraud to all the other items that, you know, you know, whether or not they're getting the right items back.

I think it, it makes sense to me that we try to speed this up and then take Save Mart team members who were bogged down.

I mean, during the holidays, I don't know if you were at a Kohl's or at a Whole Foods.

I spent some time in there and the lines of returns were just insane.

And that's taking, you know, Whole Foods employees, in this case, or Kohl's employees off the floor when they could be restocking shelves, they could be assisting customers.

And so I, I think this eliminates that huge, huge bottleneck of, of the retailers having to put their own teams on taking in these returns because I don't think that the, the reward was there for them.

I, I also think that, you know, from Amazon's perspective, this is great.

You have how many new stores now that customers can opt into to return things.

You get things back to the Amazon sellers, back into the marketplaces more quickly.

And, and for customers, it seems like this is going to be an overall better experience for them too.

They, they have the products that they're looking for when they go into the Save Mart stores because the stores are better stocked, they have access to associates if they need them to help them find things because they're not stuck behind an Amazon returns counter.

And it actually allows those customers to get in, grab the things that they need, the one stop shop instead of having to wait in lines or have a more cumbersome experience.

So I think it's a great ad for both parties and I'm excited to see what happens once they expand this more broadly.

You like it for both?

Wow.

Okay.

Wow.

Well, I love it for Amazon.

I hate it for Save Mart.

I hate it.

You know, Amazon, I'm like, sure, why not?

The more locations, the better for them.

That's like a no brainer.

And putting, I think the interesting thing about this is putting these inside a grocery store has far more customer utility than saying going to a UPS store or even a Whole Foods and definitely a Kohl's.

You know, if I throw, if I want to, you know, shot fire some shots at Kohl's this morning.

But you know, for Save Mart, I just don't like it.

I think it's a short sighted effort that still takes capital and it takes the focus of your employees.

So I think it's a little naive to say like, you know, the Save Mart employees don't have to do anything because if a customer's having been a store manager and worked in a store, if a customer's having a problem with that kiosk, they're going to go to the store people to help them solve it.

And that's a pain in the ass.

So you know, it's just like in Kohl's, like you're letting the rooster in the, in the, into the hen house number one, which I don't like.

And you're tying your traffic into something that has nothing to do with selling groceries and could easily be replicated by any of the other grocers with which you compete.

So in the long term it does nothing for you to differentiate yourself competitively.

So again, I'm on the stump of with this story with Kroger, it's like, where are we really focused?

What are we really trying to do?

What are we as leadership team trying to pull off and to create long term differentiation?

That's why I don't like it.

I think this is distracting and it doesn't amount to anything in the long run.

You know, Kohl's, at the Kohl's over the holidays they had three people assigned to Amazon returns.

I think if you have a kiosk, having one person manage it just like a self checkout still gives you an opportunity to, you know, have that person floating.

Giving guests a one on one high touch experience.

So to me it doesn't seem like like an issue there to deploy, you know, a single resource that can be used for multiple things in that.

And I think you are getting more traffic for groceries versus a Kohl's or something like that.

Like you don't need to buy something at Kohl's every day, but the milk, egg and bread trip that could be accomplished while you're returning something or the, the fill in trip I think for grocery makes a lot more sense.