Amazon Talks Logistics Partnership With French Retailer Leclerc

In more Amazon news, the U.S.-based technology group has reportedly approached Leclerc, a privately-held French supermarket, about a logistics collaboration.

Michel-Edouard Leclerc, head of the Ivry-sur-Seine-based French hypermarket chain, confirmed the rumor, according to a Wednesday (Oct. 4) Reuters report.

The news comes after a recent report published on French news site Le Monde which stated that Amazon is interested in opening roughly 15 physical stores in Paris, France — thus furthering its venture into the grocery industry. The unsourced report said the company aims to open the stores over the next two years, with inspiration from its non-cash Amazon Go concept stores.

The Amazon Go prototype grocery stores will enable customers to make purchases without the need for a cashier, and are currently in testing in Seattle, Washington.

According to the Reuters article, Amazon has approached several French supermarket operators with interest in distribution deals or acquisitions within the country. In its first foray into grocery, the company purchased Whole Foods Market earlier this year for $13.7 billion. It subsequently reduced in-store prices, added Amazon Prime to Whole Foods’ point-of-sale (POS) system and added several of the health food supermarket chain’s private label products on the Amazon eCommerce marketplace.

In other recent Amazon growth news, the company has acquired Manhattan-based artificial intelligence (AI) 3D body scanning startup Body Labs, according to a Tuesday (Oct. 3) report from TechCrunch. It also kicked off a restaurant delivery partnership with digital ordering technology provider Olo as part of its new Amazon Restaurants offering.

The Olo partnership added 200 restaurant brands across 40,000 locations to the Amazon Restaurants offering, including Applebee’s, Chili’s, Chipotle, Denny’s, Five Guys, Jamba Juice, Noodles & Company, Red Robin, Shake Shack, sweetgreen and Wingstop, among others.