Amazon said it will close almost all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores within days, narrowing its focus on food delivery and on its grocery business, Whole Foods Market.
In the company’s plan, some of the shuttered locations will be converted into Whole Foods sites. Amazon said the last day of operation for Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores is Sunday, with its California locations remaining open longer to comply with state requirements.
Amazon said it had seen “encouraging signals in our Amazon-branded physical grocery stores,” but it has not yet created “a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion,” according to a Tuesday statement.
The closures were announced shortly before Amazon said Wednesday that it was cutting about 16,000 corporate jobs, the company’s second round of mass layoffs in three months. In an earlier round of comments, CEO Andy Jassy said job cuts were not driven by company finances or AI, but by changes in Amazon’s priorities, including the types of businesses it pursues.
Amazon said its Whole Foods footprint has continued to grow since it purchased the company in 2017, citing more than 40% sales growth and expansion to more than 550 locations. It said it plans to open more than 100 new Whole Foods Market stores over the next few years.
The company also linked the retail changes to what it said is increased consumer shift toward online delivery. Amazon said it delivers groceries to 5,000 U.S. cities and towns and that, in many places, customers can get same-day delivery of fresh produce and other perishables; based on customer feedback, it said it intends to expand same-day delivery to more places this year.
Amazon said Tuesday it plans to open “supercenter” locations that would carry groceries and more, but it did not provide additional details about the concept.
Amazon opened its first Amazon Go location eight years ago in Seattle, pitching a shopping model in which customers can take items from shelves and “just walk out,” with customers charged after they leave the store. Amazon said its Amazon Go locations served as “innovation hubs,” and that its “just walk out” technology is used in more than 360 third-party locations in five countries.
The company said it is also expanding that technology within its own operations. It said more than 40 North American fulfillment centers use the technology in breakrooms so employees can grab meals without checkout delays, and it said more are planned this year. Amazon introduced its first Amazon Fresh stores in 2020.