Citing the mounting success of its grocery delivery service and lack of a strong market for its physical stores, Amazon announced Tuesday it will shutter its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go store locations, including roughly two dozen in California.
“While we’ve seen encouraging signals in our Amazon-branded physical grocery stores, we haven’t yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion,” according to a statement from the company. “After a careful evaluation of the business and how we can best serve customers, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores, converting various locations into Whole Foods Market stores.
“Customers can continue to shop Amazon Fresh online in available areas for fast and convenient delivery. We’re grateful to our team members for their many contributions over the years and are working whenever possible to help them find roles elsewhere in Amazon, including across our vast operations network, as we make this transition.”
The decision will impact Amazon Fresh locations in areas including Cerritos, Encino, Fountain Valley, Fullerton, Long Beach, Torrance, Northridge, Pasadena, Woodland Hills, Ladera Heights, Huntington Beach and Irvine. Amazon Go convenience stores are located in Whittier and Torrance.
It was unclear which stores will be converted into Whole Foods markets. According to Amazon, the company is planning to open 100 Whole Foods locations nationally over the next several years.
“Whole Foods Market, a pioneer and leader in natural and organic foods, has seen strong success since our 2017 acquisition, with over 40% sales growth and expansion to more than 550 locations,” according to the company. “Customers are increasingly choosing Whole Foods Market for both everyday shopping and special occasions, as demonstrated by record-breaking customer traffic and year-over-year comparable store growth that is outpacing the broader industry.”
I live 3 blocks from Amazon fresh It was totally irritating store since it opened with salty tasteless chickens to Burt pizzas lots of rude Chinese women who cant serve food Disabled woke cashiers who value their own rights than yours
Ownership was blind to all this