Amazon to close 23 California grocery stores as it axes cashier-free concept

Amazon plans to close 23 grocery stores in California as it abandons its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores nationwide. Some locations could reopen as Whole Foods Market stores. 

Amazon announced the Amazon Go and Fresh closures in a news release on Tuesday, where it said that the company has yet to find “the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion” of its Amazon-branded grocery stores. Amazon currently operates 19 Amazon Fresh storefronts in Southern California and three in Northern California, as well as one Amazon Go store in Los Angeles County.

The company launched Amazon Fresh as a delivery-only service in 2017 but later brought physical grocery store locations to Los Angeles and Chicago in 2020 before expanding nationwide. Amazon Go stores have smaller footprints and were first launched in Seattle. Both Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go feature cashier-less checkout technology.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed that 57 Amazon Go stores and 15 Amazon Fresh locations across the U.S. will close as early as Sunday, but said that the California locations will shutter later while the company complies with state law. In California, groceries and pharmacies must provide a 45-day notice ahead of an expected closure. The spokesperson said employees would be offered either new jobs or severance pay for leaving the company.

Some of the California locations could be converted into new locations for Whole Foods, which is also owned by Amazon, but the spokesperson declined to say which locations in California would be converted. According to the news release, the online retail giant will open more than 100 Whole Foods locations within the next few years. It’s also unclear where these upcoming stores will open. 

The company plans to continue offering Amazon Fresh as an online service following the closure of the physical stores.