Amazon is closing grocery stores in WA. Emphasizing delivery

Amazon grocery stores? Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Apparently, not so much. Amazon has decided to close their 8 grocery stores. 

According to Seattletimes.com,
‘Amazon is shuttering its grocery and convenience stores to focus on delivery and its subsidiary Whole Foods, the company said Tuesday.
The company launched its Amazon-branded convenience store, Amazon Go, in 2018. Over the following years, it unveiled its Amazon Fresh grocery store concept, injected technology into the shopping experience and tinkered with the format for brick-and-mortar retail.’ 

Why are they doing this?

Recently, Amazon stated that Amazon branded grocery stores were actually looking like a good investment, but they said in retrospect, the financing to open those kinds of stores across the nation was just not possible. So, they decided to Invest in delivery and Whole Foods instead. 

Amazon's grocery delivery business has been expanding rapidly. Taking in just over $100 billion in gross sales. 

Amazon has not totally ruled out other options for brick-and-mortar businesses including, Amazon Books, Amazon Style, (a clothing outlet), Amazon 4 star (Those stores have all closed), and you can bet that Amazon will continue to experiment with other Ideas in the coming years. 

What about Whole Foods?

Amazon is going to continue to invest heavily in Whole Foods, hoping to open over 100 new stores nationwide. They're also experimenting with an interesting concept in Pennsylvania, called a store within a store. Offering name brand items that you would not normally find at Whole Foods. 

We will see. Wall Street seems to be in favor of all this, as of noon Tuesday (1/27/26), Amazon stock was up 2.5%.