#AMAZON FRESH LOCATIONS FREE#

We are committed to our investment in grocery, and as we grow we’ll continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers.” “This year, we will open new Amazon Fresh stores to better serve customers in the Greater London area. “While we decided to close three Amazon Fresh stores, it doesn’t mean we won’t grow,” Campbell added. In January, Amazon called quits on its Dalston Fresh store, less than 18 months after it launched.

The three Fresh stores are not the first of the small but growing estate Amazon has decided to close. Aldi opened its first checkout-free store at the start of last year. Around the same time, Tesco launched its first GetGo store, offering a similar checkout-free shopping experience, powered by Trigo, and Sainsbury’s opened its version – Smartshop Pick & Go – which utilises Amazon’s technology. The 2,500 sq ft store, at the entrance of Ealing Broadway shopping centre, allows customers to scan their phones on arrival, fill their bags with products and leave without any interaction with staff or a self-checkout machine.Įast Sheen opened in November 2021, and Wandsworth the following month. Staff at the soon-to-close stores have been offered new roles in nearby Amazon Fresh stores, and it is understood none have opted to leave the business.Įaling was Amazon’s first UK grocery store, offering customers a “new convenience grocery format” Amazon said at the time, and the first opportunity to use its ‘Just Walk Out’ technology. As part of that, like any physical retailer, we periodically assess our portfolio of stores and make optimisation decisions along the way,” Amazon spokeswoman Lindsay Campbell told The Grocer. “Our goal is to build a best-in-class grocery shopping experience where Amazon is the first choice for selection, value, and convenience, including in the UK. The Ealing store – which launched in March 2021 – as well as Amazon’s Wandsworth and East Sheen sites will close their doors for good on Sunday 23 July.Īmazon told The Grocer the decision “doesn’t mean we won’t grow” the Fresh estate. The company confirmed it is soon to launch two new Amazon Fresh locations in London – in Moorgate and Liverpool Street. Lumina Intelligence: UK Food & Drink ReportsĪmazon is closing three Fresh stores, including the e-commerce giant’s first physical retail site outside North America, in Ealing.Russell Jones, director of Amazon Fresh, said the brand was 'committed to making it as easy as possible for customers to find good value products in the face of rising living costs for customers around the country'. Asda’s prices have increased by 15.2pc over the past year. Figures compiled by the Grocer suggested that, by last month, the average price of a basket in Amazon cost 3.7pc more than last year, while, at Tesco, prices were up 4.9pc. In the UK, the company has been attempting to take a larger share of grocery sales by raising prices less than supermarkets in response to inflation. Since the pandemic hit, Amazon has been placing a larger focus on its grocery business, after more people switched to getting their shopping delivered to their homes.

Late last month, Amazon said online sales had shrunk for the second quarter in a row, down by 4pc, although altogether, its revenues rose 7pc to $121bn (£102bn), thanks to a stronger performance from its cloud computing division. It comes amid a wider downturn in customer spending, with Amazon having not been immune from households cutting back in the face of soaring energy and grocery bills.

The Sunday Times said that Amazon would look at reviving expansion plans in the next 12 to 18 months.Ī spokesman for the company said: 'We look forward to opening additional Amazon Fresh stores in the near future.' The moves come just months after Amazon announced it was shutting 68 electronics and book stores in the US and the UK, saying it was planning to focus instead on the grocery operations and its clothing store in Los Angeles. Instead, they are charged after leaving the store on their card.

#AMAZON FRESH LOCATIONS FREE#

The US retailer has reportedly walked away from talks for dozens of potential sites for Amazon Fresh stores, after facing disappointing sales at the 19 check-out free shops it already has in the UK.Īccording to the Sunday Times, the company is no longer looking for new locations for Amazon Fresh, halting plans to open hundreds more sites, which use tracking technology to tell which items customers have picked up and allow them to leave without having to pay at a till. Amazon has pressed pause on a major UK roll-out of its till-free grocery stores, as the cost of living crunch forces shoppers to cut back.

Amazon fresh locations