Amazon Shuts Down Go and Fresh Stores as It Refocuses Physical Retail Strategy

Amazon is winding down two of its brick-and-mortar retail formats, shutting its Amazon Go convenience stores and mass-market Amazon Fresh grocery locations as it narrows its physical retail strategy.

Amazon Go, launched to showcase the company’s Just Walk Out checkout technology, was built around small-format convenience stores focused on grab-and-go purchases. While Amazon once planned to scale the concept to as many as 3,000 locations, the format never expanded beyond a limited footprint. The model’s reliance on low-ticket transactions constrained revenue potential, particularly without large-scale expansion.

Amazon Fresh, introduced as a mass-market grocery chain intended to compete with traditional grocers, also struggled to reach meaningful scale. The company initially emphasized in-store technology, including Just Walk Out and Dash Carts, before later redesigning stores to feel more conventional. Despite those changes, Fresh remained limited to a few dozen locations, far short of what would be required to compete with national grocery chains or Walmart.

Amazon has increasingly shifted grocery volume toward online and same-day delivery, where it believes it can sell many of the same national brands carried in Fresh stores more efficiently. The company says fresh grocery sales through same-day delivery have grown significantly since early 2025, with perishables now among the most frequently ordered items in markets where the service is available.

As part of the shift, some existing Amazon Fresh locations—and potentially unopened sites—are expected to be converted into Whole Foods Market stores. Amazon previously followed a similar approach in the UK, where multiple Fresh locations were converted to Whole Foods formats.

While Amazon is exiting the Go and Fresh concepts, it is not leaving physical retail altogether. The company plans to continue expanding Whole Foods, with more than 100 new stores planned across traditional Whole Foods Market locations and smaller-format Daily Shop stores. It is also testing hybrid concepts that combine grocery retail with fulfillment.

One such test includes a Whole Foods location in Pennsylvania that incorporates an automated micro-fulfillment center, allowing customers to pick up Amazon and Amazon Fresh orders in-store. Amazon is also testing a two-level store format that places a mass-market grocery offering on one floor and a Whole Foods on another, enabling customers to shop across price tiers in a single location.

Amazon is also planning a large-format store in the Chicago suburbs that will combine groceries with household essentials and general merchandise, along with a limited warehouse-style component.

Physical stores remain a small part of Amazon’s overall business. In the most recent reported quarter, physical store sales—driven primarily by Whole Foods—accounted for a low single-digit percentage of total company revenue. The latest moves indicate Amazon is prioritizing physical locations that support logistics, fulfillment, and grocery scale, while stepping away from formats that did not show a clear path to profitability at scale.