After months of store closures around the world due to COVID-related shutdowns, it finally seemed as though things were finally looking up for the retail industry. Unfortunately, even more casualties are coming—and this time, it’s a retail giant that’s closing up shop. Read on to discover which grocery chain is shutting its doors for good.
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Amazon Go Grocery is shutting down.
Shutterstock / VDB PhotosAmazon Go Grocery, Amazon’s larger cashier-free, checkout-line-free grocery chain, is closing some locations and rebranding others, GeekWire reports.
The retail giant has already closed its Amazon Go Grocery location in Redmond, Washington. Despite Amazon's massive customer base, Amazon Go Grocery lasted for a brief period of time—the chain only launched in Feb. 2020.
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Remaining Amazon Go Grocery stores will become Amazon Fresh.
Shutterstock / Ijby BergAmazon has already shuttered at least one of its Amazon Go Grocery stores, but has not yet announced additional closures. Instead, Amazon has announced plans to rebrand its Amazon Go Grocery stores under the company’s Amazon Fresh label, starting with its Amazon Go Grocery store in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
In doing so, the Jeff Bezos-owned mega-retailer hopes to “simplify the experience for our customers,” spokesperson Carly Golden told The Seattle Times.
Amazon has plans to expand its Amazon Fresh empire significantly in 2021.
ShutterstockAmazon currently operates just 12 Amazon Fresh stores in the U.S.—located in California and Illinois—and four in the U.K., but the brand is quickly expanding its reach. Bloomberg reports that Amazon has plans to open another 28 stores in the U.S. in the near future, each equipped with Dash shopping carts that calculate purchases as customers shop.
“We know customers care about low prices, convenience, and great selection in their grocer, and we believe we offer that as well as a seamless online to in-store grocery shopping experience,” Jeff Helbling, vice president of Amazon Fresh, explained in a statement.
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Amazon has not announced plans to close its Amazon Go stores.
Shutterstock / MariaXWhile Amazon Go Grocery may be folding, the company has not yet announced what will become of Amazon Go, its convenience store brand, which sells primarily prepared food and drinks. What is clear, however, is that the brand hasn't grown as quickly as Amazon had initially hoped.
In 2018, Amazon announced that it had plans to open up to 3,000 Amazon Go stores in the U.S. by 2021. The company currently operates just 22 Amazon Go stores in the U.S.—located in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle—a number that falls far short of Amazon’s early projections for the shopping experience.
