Menu
March 6, 2023: Amazon has announced plans to shut down eight of its Go convenience stores in the United States. The move is part of the company’s ongoing efforts to reduce costs and pull back its physical footprint. Two Go stores in New York City, two in Seattle, and four in San Francisco will be closed on April 1, 2023. The company stated that it would work to help affected employees find other roles within the company.
According to an Amazon spokesperson, the company periodically reviews its store portfolio and makes optimization decisions along the way. The company remains committed to the Amazon Go format, operates more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the United States, and will continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers as it evolves its Amazon Go stores.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been taking steps to curtail expenses in its grocery unit and elsewhere as it grapples with slowing sales and a worsening economic outlook. In January, the company announced that it would lay off as many as 18,000 employees, with some of the cuts felt in Amazon’s grocery business. In recent months, the company has shed warehouse and brick-and-mortar retail space after a period of rapid expansion fueled by a surge of e-commerce spending during the pandemic.
Amazon executives previously confirmed that the company would close some Fresh supermarkets and Go stores following its fourth-quarter earnings results. Amazon is also temporarily pausing expansion of the Fresh grocery chain until it can find a format that resonates with customers and “where we like the economics,” Jassy said on the earnings call.
Amazon has been striving to crack the grocery segment since launching its Fresh grocery delivery service in 2007. In 2017, the company made a historic splash when it acquired upscale grocer Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion, Amazon’s biggest acquisition ever. The first Amazon Go store opened to the public in 2018 at the company’s Seattle headquarters. Amazon outfits the stores with cameras and sensors that enable customers to purchase products without waiting in the cashier line. Last January, the company opened its first suburban Amazon Go location in Mill Creek, Wash., after focusing launches around urban areas in a bid to draw commuters on their lunch breaks.
