Amazon announced that it is closing Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores, converting some locations to Whole Foods Market stores as the company expands its same-day delivery map for groceries.
The Whole Foods owner underscored its intent to open more than 100 new Whole Foods Market stores in the coming years. Those plans call for more Whole Foods Market Daily Shop locations as well.
Amazon ranks No. 1 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 2000, a database of North America’s largest online retailers by annual web sales.
The company is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. That database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (3P GMV).
Why are Amazon Fresh stores closing?
Amazon assessed in a Jan. 27 post to its website that it had not “yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion” with its Amazon-branded physical grocery stores. As a result, the retailer detailed its next steps for shuttering both Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores, with Whole Foods conversions taking place in some cases.
As the closures proceed, Amazon noted it would preserve the Amazon Fresh brand for online grocery sales and delivery services for customers. Meanwhile, it committed to assisting team members from shuttered stores with finding roles in other Amazon operations.
In addition, the company shared that it had benefited from testing its Just Walk Out technology at Amazon Go stores. That checkout technology, which relies on computer vision and other means to facilitate checkout experiences, has since been deployed across five countries and at stadiums and hospitals. Amazon previously announced on Jan. 13 that it would make Just Walk Out experiences available at client pop-up venues for events.
Amazon’s grocery delivery plans in 2026
In the meantime, Amazon said that in 2026, it would add to the “thousands” of cities and towns where it already offers same-day delivery. In December 2025, the company shared that it reached a milestone in reaching 2,300 cities and towns with same-day grocery delivery.
Previously, Amazon had announced in August 2025 that it could reach 1,000 cities and towns with same-day grocery delivery, setting a goal to reach more rural communities.
The research firm Brick Meets Click credited Amazon’s expanding same-day grocery delivery service with boosting December 2025 year-over-year sales growth in the Ship-to-Home category that it tracks in its monthly online grocery delivery report. Average order value (AOV) in the category was up 14% from a year earlier.
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