Amazon is planning to close its Go and Fresh physical stores across the country to instead double down on its Whole Foods grocery brand, with plans to open 100+ new stores over the next few years.
As part of that expansion, the company will further introduce a new smaller format store called Whole Foods Market Daily Shop that offers a curated selection of grab-and-go meals, coffee, and everyday essentials. So like 7-Eleven?
As to why the shift in brick-and-mortar branding, Amazon wrote:
“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. 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, converting various locations into Whole Foods Market stores.”
To be frank, this always should have been Amazon’s grocery strategy. Why spend $13.7B acquiring an amazing grocery chain like Whole Foods to not capitalize on its valuable brand equity? Amazon’s entire grocery division should have been exclusively operated under the Whole Foods name since its acquisition in 2017.
Amazon also wrote in its announcement:
“We will continue to invent for customers, including testing new physical store experiences like Amazon Grocery, which we launched alongside Whole Foods Market in Chicago, Illinois, or our ‘store within a store’ experience in the Whole Foods Market in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, where customers can also shop for groceries and household essentials from Amazon. These experiences make it easier for customers to shop our extensive grocery selection, all in one place.”
Bad move Amazon! Kill the “Amazon Grocery” experience and go all-in on the Whole Foods brand. No-one cares if you sell Coca Cola or other non-organic food and drink in Whole Foods. Everyone knows you’re going to dilute the original Whole Foods mission anyway, so you might as well make it convenient for customers along the way.
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