Amazon Fresh Exiting United Kingdom Market

It took less than half a decade for Amazon Fresh to grow stale in the United Kingdom.

The e-commerce giant is considering shuttering all of its brick-and-mortar Amazon Fresh stores in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported. Fourteen of the locations are likely closing down, while another five would be converted into another Amazon-owned business, Whole Foods Markets.

Amazon hopes to provide alternative positions within the company to affected employees.

The Amazon Fresh brand, known for its cashier-free experience, debuted in the United Kingdom four years ago, a year after the brand launched globally.

But contactless experiences in vogue during the onset of the global pandemic grew less vital as time went on, stranding Amazon Fresh behind the likes of Tesco and Sainsbury’s in the U.K. Additionally, the company faced growing scrutiny over an alleged lack of compliance with national codes revolving around paying suppliers in a timely manner, according to the Guardian.

While doing away with its brick-and-mortar grocery brand in the U.K., Amazon is doubling down on grocery deliveries in the country. It plans to roll out same-day delivery of perishable groceries in the U.K., a program it’s already launched in the United States and aims to expand to more than 2,300 cities in America by year’s end.

Amazon is also aiming to double the number of Prime subscribers in the U.K. with access to delivery services such as Morrisons, Co-op, Iceland and Gopuff. To aid this venture, the tech giant is investing $54 billion in fulfillment centers and delivery stations across the country.

Amazon Fresh’s growing pains are not unique to Britain. Two years after launching in September 2020, progress stalled out for the U.S. operations, too, leading to a proliferation of “zombie” stores ready to open, but frustratingly remaining closed.

Those struggles were reported after the company announced the end of another brick-and-mortar retail gambit, saying it would close all 68 of its bookstores and pop-up shops.— Holden Walter-Warner