SEATTLE — This story was originally posted on MyNorthwest.com
Amazon is shuttering all of its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh locations, the company announced Tuesday.
There are 72 stores — 57 Amazon Fresh and 15 remaining Amazon Go — nationwide.
Amazon described the move as a strategic shift, not a retreat from grocery sales and deliveries. The tech giant stated it is concentrating its efforts on its Whole Foods Market locations and grocery delivery from its website. Amazon purchased Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017.
“Over two decades ago, we started adding groceries and everyday household essentials to Amazon.com,” the company stated in a press release. “Today, Amazon is one of the top three grocers in the U.S., with over $150 billion in gross sales and more than 150 million customers shopping groceries each year.”
In turn, Amazon is expected to open more than 100 Whole Foods Markets over the next few years. With this move, Whole Foods will become Amazon’s only physical store brand in the U.S.
The final day for all Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go locations outside California will be Feb. 1. According to GeekWire, California stores will remain open for 45 more days due to state labor notification requirements.
Amazon was rumored to undergo another major round of layoffs last week
Last week, Reuters reported that Amazon was expected to undergo another round of layoffs in an effort to trim its workforce by approximately 30,000 employees.
Once conducted, it would be considered the next round of layoffs that first occurred in October, two sources who asked not to be identified told Reuters. During the October round of layoffs, 14,000 employees were laid off. The second round, which can begin as early as Tuesday, is expected to affect roughly the same number of employees.
In October, Amazon cut approximately 14,000 corporate jobs, close to 4% of its workforce, as the online retail giant ramps up spending on AI while trimming costs elsewhere. According to a letter to employees from Beth Galetti, the senior vice president of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, those laid off would be given 90 days to look for a new position internally.
Amazon has about 350,000 corporate employees and a total workforce of approximately 1.56 million.
In June, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, who has aggressively sought to cut costs since becoming CEO in 2021, said he anticipated that generative AI would reduce Amazon’s corporate workforce over the next few years.
Amazon is investing $10 billion toward building a campus in North Carolina to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Since 2024 began, Amazon has committed to about $10 billion apiece to data center projects in Mississippi, Indiana, Ohio, and North Carolina as it builds up its infrastructure to try to keep up with other tech giants making leaps in AI.
The 14,000 jobs cut in October were the biggest wave of layoffs since 2023, when the company cut 27,000 jobs over a two-month period.
Amazon’s workforce doubled during the pandemic as millions stayed home and boosted online spending. In the following years, big tech and retail companies cut thousands of jobs to bring spending back in line.
MyNorthwest and KIRO Newsradio have reached out to Amazon for comment.
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