Amazon announced it will be closing all its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical store locations while expanding its Whole Foods Market business.
“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,” Amazon wrote. “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.”
According to Amazon, its Amazon Go locations served as innovation hubs where it developed its Just Walk Out technology—now a scalable checkout-free solution operating in more than 360 third-part locations across five countries. The technology will be expanded to Amazon’s own operations across its fulfillment centers.
Amazon said it is working on expanding the brand affinity for Whole Foods Market through various means. One is the new Whole Foods Market Daily Shop, a smaller store format that is redefining convenience and the neighborhood grocery shopping experience with a curated selection of grab-and-go meals, coffee and everyday essentials. The Daily Shop format has expanded to five locations and there are plans to open five additional locations by the end of 2026.
Whole Foods Market also announced the debut of its new “store within a store” experience at the store in Plymouth Meeting, PA, where customers can shop for groceries and household essentials from Amazon. It is designed to make it easier for customers to shop Amazon’s extensive grocery selection all in one place.
“We will also continue inventing on behalf of customers to develop a mass physical store format that brings customers distinctive selection, value, and convenience,” Amazon wrote. “Over the coming years, we plan to introduce new store concepts that we think customers will be excited about. For example, we are exploring a new supercenter physical retail concept designed for customers to conveniently shop Amazon’s broad selection and low prices across fresh groceries, household essentials, and general merchandise. Through it all, our goal remains: to make grocery shopping easier, faster, and more affordable for customers.”
For more information, visit www.amazon.com.
