Grocery shopping is one of the most polarizing experiences you can have on the planet, and as such, we’re very selective about where we choose to spend our cash. Some places offer a premium shopping experience with beautifully organized stores, fresh handmade peanut butter, and carts that glide as if you’re walking on clouds, but they also tend to come with an equally premium price tag. There are stores that offer incredible savings on everything from apples to zebrafruit, but the ambience and quality are decidedly lacking. The key is to find a place in the middle where you can grab most of what you need at a reasonable price without sacrificing your overall comfort.
That’s exactly what Amazon set out to do when it first launched its brick-and-mortar Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores in August of 2020. The goal was to offer a tech-forward shopping experience while still providing customers with the same value and variety Amazon is known for. To make shopping easier and more seamless, Amazon introduced the Dash Cart, which has a built-in scale and camera, so all you have to do is add items to your cart and go. The cart is also linked to the payment method on your Amazon account, making the checkout process effectively automatic.
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It’s these types of innovations that initially made investors confident in the growing grocery chain, but unfortunately, it appears Amazon severely underestimated how hard it would be to keep up with legacy grocers. On Jan. 27, Amazon announced it would close all its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores after “a careful evaluation of the business.”
Amazon to Close All Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go Locations
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The announcement was embedded among broader details about Amazon’s plans to ramp up its online grocery and delivery service, which has “experienced remarkable growth,” according to the company. Despite the growth online, the Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go concepts struggled to attract consumers away from other conventional supermarket chains, including the Amazon-owned Whole Foods.
To further underscore that point, Amazon highlighted its commitment to bringing Whole Foods Market to more customers, with plans to convert some of its previously branded Amazon Fresh and Go stores into Whole Foods locations. While the number of Amazon Fresh and Go locations that will be converted has not yet been confirmed, the brand has opened roughly 58 stores since 2020, with several concentrated in California and Illinois. The closures are set to begin on Feb. 1.
What’s Next for Amazon?
Additionally, Amazon signaled that it hasn’t completely scrapped plans to disrupt the supermarket space, mentioning several innovations already being tested or in the works. For example, it announced that it’s “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.” Personally, that sounds like a dream come true, but we’ll take what we can get in the meantime.
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