photo by Solomon Tucker
Solomon writes:
“There you have it folks Amazon Fresh liquidation is 50 percent off the entire store. It’s going really quick. They probably won’t make it to Feb 1st”
Thanks to Kevin for sending “So long, Amazon Fresh. We hardly knew you! I guess the 14th Street store was already closed. Chevy Chase location has been limping along.”
CNN reported:
“Amazon is closing its branded brick-and-mortar grocery stores, with the company consolidating its physical strategy under the Whole Foods name.”
Amazon wrote:
“Key takeaways
Amazon offers fast, convenient grocery delivery in over 5,000 U.S. cities and towns, including thousands served by Same-Day Delivery—where customers can shop perishables alongside millions of other items. Based on strong customer feedback, we plan to expand Same-Day Delivery of fresh groceries to many more communities in 2026.
Whole Foods Market to open 100+ new stores over the next few years, including expansion of Whole Foods Market Daily Shop, providing a broad selection of natural and organic groceries at a great value to customers.
Company to close Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores, converting various locations to Whole Foods Market stores.
Bringing Whole Foods Market to more customers
We are also increasing our investment in our physical stores that are resonating with customers. 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. 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. Accelerating this growth, we are now planning to invest in opening more than 100 new Whole Foods Market stores over the next few years.
We’re building on the brand affinity for Whole Foods Market with a compelling new format, Whole Foods Market Daily Shop. This smaller store format is redefining convenience and the neighborhood grocery shopping experience with a curated selection of grab-and-go meals, coffee, and everyday essentials. The format—now in five locations—has quickly become part of customers’ daily lives, with shoppers loving how it offers the same Whole Foods Market quality they trust in a convenient, quick-stop location. Based on strong performance, we’ll open five additional Whole Foods Market Daily Shop locations by the end of 2026.
Prioritizing our investments
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. 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.
Throughout our operation of these stores, we’ve gathered valuable insights about what matters to customers. For example, our Amazon Go locations served as innovation hubs where we developed Just Walk Out technology—now a scalable checkout-free solution operating in over 360 third-party locations across five countries. The customer impact has been transformative, from reducing cafeteria wait times from 25 to just 3 minutes at BayCare’s St. Joseph’s Hospital, to enabling sports fans at Scotiabank Arena to grab concessions in 30 seconds. Millions now simply take what they need and go, without waiting in line. Building on this success, we’re expanding Just Walk Out technology to Amazon’s own operations, with more than 40 North American Fulfillment Centers using it in breakrooms today, and many more planned for 2026, helping employees maximize break time by grabbing meals without checkout delays.”