Amazon to Close All Amazon Fresh and Go Stores
Amazon.com is closing its branded brick-and-mortar grocery stores, with the company consolidating its physical strategy under the Whole Foods name, reports CNN Business. The closures, which affect its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go locations, were announced Tuesday and amount to about 70 stores across the United States. In a blog post, Amazon said while it saw positive signs in the stores, it didn’t create a “truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion.”
As a result, some locations will be converted into a Whole Foods Market, with an additional 100 Whole Foods locations opening in coming years. That will include the expansion of its new, smaller spinoff called Whole Foods Market Daily Shop.
Total Retail's Take: Amazon's foray into standalone supermarkets seems to be coming to a close after it failed to grab market share from more seasoned grocers. Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017, opened its first Go store in 2018 and its first Fresh store in 2020. The retailer had recently brought its three grocery businesses closer under common leadership with the appointment of Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel as vice president of Amazon Worldwide Grocery Stores early last year. Although Fresh and Go will no longer be part of Amazon's physical grocery fleet, the company says its increasing its investment into "physical stores that are resonating with customers" and notes that "Whole Foods has seen strong success." It's currently testing new physical offerings, including a store-within-a-store experience to offer household essentials from Amazon inside Whole Foods stores.
Before it introduced brick-and-mortar supermarkets, online delivery was Amazon’s first grocery play. This week's announcement reaffirmed the retailer's investment in its online grocery business and highlighted its grocery delivery service, which is available in more than 5,000 communities and has more than $150 billion in gross sales. Amazon is continuing to launch new offerings in this space and recently introduced Amazon Now, an ultra-fast delivery option that brings thousands of essential items, including fresh food, to customers' homes in about 30 minutes or less.
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Kristina Stidham is the digital content director at Total Retail and sister brands Women in Retail Leadership Circle and Women Leading Travel & Hospitality at NAPCO Media. She is passionate about digital media and handles video, podcast and virtual event production for all brands. You can often find her at WIRLC, TR, WLT&H or industry events with her camera and podcasting equipment—or at home on Zoom—recording interviews with thought leaders and business executives.
Kristina holds a B.A. in Media Studies and Production from the Temple University Klein College of Media and Communication in Philadelphia. Go Owls! When she's not in the office, she loves to go on long walks, sing around the house, hangout with her family and two pet guinea pigs, and travel to new places.
