Amazon is making a major strategic shift in its grocery business, announcing it will close all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical store locations as it reallocates resources toward same-day grocery delivery and the continued growth of its Whole Foods Market chain.
📦 Why Amazon is Closing Fresh and Go Stores
The company said that while its Amazon-branded grocery stores provided useful insights, they didn’t deliver a scalable customer experience or the right economics for large-scale expansion.
Amazon’s grocery strategy will now prioritize:
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Same-day online grocery delivery across thousands of U.S. cities.
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Expansion of Whole Foods Market, which Amazon acquired in 2017 and has grown substantially since.
🛒 What’s Happening to the Stores
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All Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go locations — a total of dozens of stores nationwide — are scheduled to close by early February 2026.
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Some of these sites may be converted into Whole Foods Market locations as part of a broader retail footprint expansion.
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Amazon noted that physical grocery stores remain part of its vision, including new concepts such as a larger “supercenter” retail format.
đźšš Delivery Becomes Central
Instead of walking into Fresh or Go stores, Amazon is betting heavily on rapid home delivery of groceries and everyday essentials. Its same-day delivery service now reaches thousands of U.S. towns and cities, with fresh foods among the most-ordered items.
In many markets, perishable grocery delivery has surged — reportedly increasing more than 40-fold in the past year, according to company statements.
🌿 The Whole Foods Focus
Whole Foods Market, now with more than 550 locations, will see significant expansion, including over 100 new stores planned in the coming years and more smaller “Daily Shop” formats for quick stops.
🚀 What’s Next for Amazon and Grocery Retail
While the Fresh and Go experiments are ending, Amazon isn’t abandoning physical retail entirely:
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It’s testing new store concepts that blend grocery with general merchandise.
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Its automated “Just Walk Out” checkout technology — pioneered in Amazon Go — continues to be used in many third-party locations and internal facilities.
🧑‍💼 Impact on Employees
Closures of physical stores are part of broader cost-cutting and strategic realignment across Amazon’s business, with some layoffs and transitions already underway across its retail teams.
Bottom Line: Amazon is retreating from its own grocery stores and doubling down on the digital delivery experience and the Whole Foods brand — signaling a major pivot in how the e-commerce giant serves food shoppers nationwide.
