IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Amazon will close all of its Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores in the United States and the United Kingdom.
That action will include 57 Amazon Fresh locations and 15 Amazon Go stores, most of which will shut down Feb. 1, according to a statement on Amazon news.
Amazon’s California stores are scheduled to remain open until March 13. Reportedly, the delay is to comply with state labor and notification requirements.
“While we’ve seen encouraging signals in our Amazon-branded physical grocery stores, we haven’t yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion,” the statement reads.
“After a careful evaluation of the business and how we can best serve customers, we’ve made the difficult decision to close our Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores.
Amazon Fresh brick-and-mortar stores are located in Corona, Upland, Murrieta and Fontana. There are no Amazon Go stores in either Riverside or San Bernardino counties.
Many of the shuttered stores will be converted into Whole Foods locations. That chain is expected to open more than 100 stores throughout the United States during the next few years, according to the statement.
Impacted employees are being offered jobs elsewhere with 90 days of pay and benefits for those workers not able to move to another store immediately, according to the statement.
