The predominantly online retailer Amazon.com announced in a news release at the start of this year (January 2026) that it is changing course in its engagement in brick-and-mortar retailing. Its plan, already in motion, is to concentrate on the physical chain stores of Whole Foods Market (acquired in 2017), while closing the unmanned store chain Go and the Fresh store chain [Amazon News, 27 January 2026]. On face of it, the plan of expanding and developing the Whole Foods retail enterprise sounds all very reasonable. However, an aspect of the announcement is peculiar and quite astounding — the decision to close down its Amazon Go stores, the pride of the retailer for the concept and the top-notch advanced technology it developed and utilised in stores. Shutting down Fresh stores also merits attention, but it is not as significant and symbolic as in regard to Go.
The Amazon Go chain of unmanned stores (started in 2018) was famed for its total self-service scheme, free of check-out posts of any kind, using a technology developed by Amazon and named “Just Walk Out”. It is a transformative technology driven by artificial intelligence (AI), powered by computer vision, and aided by in-store cameras and other sensors for identifying the products picked-up by shoppers from displays. Shoppers collected product items from displays in the store (e.g., shelves, refrigerators) and then could just walk out of the store, receiving the bill on departure in their Amazon Prime app. The Just Walk Out (JWO) smart technology aimed to change the whole shopping experience in a food store, especially the way consumers get charged for their product choices. It was meant to smooth the shopping journey, remove hurdles and reduce frictions (e.g., at the cashier or a self-service check-out kiosk). It may be noted that stores were usually at the level of convenience stores rather than ‘full-scale’ supermarkets. However, the adoption of the new type of shopping experience was sluggish or restricted (e.g., in particular urban areas, among certain segments such as the young and tech-savvy professionals). The chain of unmanned Go stores did not expand as broadly as initially projected (see some figures below).
At the heart of Amazon’s plan is building a new brick-and-mortar format brand-named “Whole Foods Market Daily Shop” of smaller stores, with the aim of “redefining convenience and the neighborhood grocery shopping”. These shops will offer, according to Amazon, grab-and-go meals, coffee and everyday essentials. Stores of this type opened in five locations in 2025 and five more are planned for 2026. Amazon plans overall to add 100+ new stores to its chain of Whole Foods Market (WFM) in the next few years, including the stores of Daily Shop sub-chain. This expansion will be enabled in part by conversion of some of Amazon’s Go and Fresh stores in their prior locations into WFM stores (Note: in the case of Daily Shop, this seems rather fitting due to similarity in scope and kinds of product offerings intended.) [Amazon News]
The VMSD magazine (for visual merchandising and store design) described the plan of Amazon as developing its concept of customer experience and expanding its WFM chain. It refers to an additional aspect of the plan of Amazon of launching extra-large stores (e.g., in Chicago) [“Amazon Closing Fresh and Go Stores”, VMSD, 27 January 2026]. Amazon suggests in its news release that it has seen “encouraging signals” from its operations of physical stores (WFM currently includes 550 stores), though it admits that it has not “yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large scale expansion”. It seems to relate in particular to the Go as well as Fresh store concepts. Hence, Amazon decided to embark on a new plan which it describes as “prioritizing our investments” — this sounds a bit like a nice and clean way to frame its retreat from the Go and Fresh retail ventures, but they do offer some new and refreshing ideas for physical retailing and associated services.
Thereby, another central and noteworthy feature of Amazon’s plan is the intention to enhance its delivery services [Amazon News]. Firstly, the retailer commits to continue to focus on improving its delivery services, such as making them more prompt and faster (e.g., the “Same Day Delivery” service programme — for food and non-food products). Additionally, the Fresh stores, which accompanied the online food & grocery sales operation on Amazon websites (US, UK), will be closed but the online sales will continue in areas where a delivery service remains available. Fresh will strengthen its specialisation in faster delivery of perishable produce and essential every-day products. Overall, Amazon visions a whole service scheme in which customers can choose and order from food & grocery selections of Whole Foods, Fresh online, and local retail partnerships. Selections should be made more complete and the sources more transparent to customers. On the one hand, while Amazon is enhancing its physical presence through brick-and-mortar stores, delivery based on online orders appears to remain the company’s stronghold and main interest. On the other hand, Amazon tells in its news release about more concepts in planning and early implementation (e.g., “store-within-a-store experience in a WFM store in Plymouth, PA), that would further integrate offline and online retailing services.
Estimated figures of the numbers of Go and Fresh stores exhibit some variation, but the picture is generally clear:
- According to C-Store Dive (cited as source by VMSD), the Amazon Go chain included in early 2023 about 30 stores, but since then it already closed over half of them (C-Store Dive, 27 January 2026). Coinciding with this report, Anne Palmer at CNBC (27 January 2026) indicates that 15+ Go stores remained in early 2026, and Phil Wahba at Fortune (29 January 2026) puts this number on 14 stores. Palmer suggests that Amazon started already in 2024 to turn back on its JWO technology and remove its systems from Go stores. In recent years, she reports, Amazon sought to sell its technology to other companies and have it installed in sports stadiums, concert venues, hospitals and colleges, as well as being tested in Amazon’s warehouses.
- C-Store Dive estimated that Fresh grocery chain surpassed the 60-store mark in 2024. However, it is noted that Amazon suspended in 2023 the rollout of new stores due to “economic challenges”. CNBC, reported by Palmer, estimated that Fresh had 57+ stores at the start of 2026, and in Fortune, Wahba indicated that Fresh was left with 58 stores. According to C-Store Dive, Amazon suggested that it would look for other ways to “make grocery shopping faster, and more affordable to customers”. This development is echoed in Palmer’s commentary (CNBC) that the experience of the chain of Fresh stores, rebutted in 2020, has been turbulent. Since 2023 Amazon has been going back and forth with Fresh in opening stores, updating the format, then shuttering stores (e.g., stores of Fresh in the UK were closed earlier, some converted to WFM stores).
The establishment of the unmanned Amazon Go stores received much attention in the past few years in the business media, with details on the capabilities of the JWO technology and its different components or features in the stores. In the news release from January 2026, Amazon described the Go stores as “innovation hubs”, where it developed and experimented through implementation with its checkout-free technology Just Walk Out, and thus they could learn more on customers’ preferred ways of shopping. Given the scale of the Go chain at its peak noted above (~30), it sounds that the project of Go remained experimental. Yet, the ‘experiment’ reference gives the impression of playing down the significance of the JWO technology and Go stores for Amazon and for the marketplace, since at the time the Go chain was presented as part of the brick-and-mortar network of the company, wherein it succeeded to create a new form of food & grocery shopping. Eventually, Amazon notifies that the technology is now “a scalable checkout-free solution operating in over 360 third party locations across five countries”. As for the kinds of locations where JWO is implemented by third party operators (e.g., in form of kiosks), see the list reported by Palmer (CNBC) cited above. Amazon itself notes that the technology is implemented in cafeterias within Amazon’s internal operations (e.g., fulfillment centres) to the benefit of its employees. It appears odd, nonetheless, that this is how Amazon would measure and appraise the success of its innovative, transformative technology and the associated venture of unmanned Go stores.
At this junction, one could still raise the thought that Amazon might implement JWO in some form in stores of Whole Foods Market in the near future. However, Amazon remains ambiguous if and how Just Walk Out will be adopted in the existing and new stores of WFM. Considering that Amazon may have started to pull out the JWO systems already from operating Go stores (Palmer for CNBC), the company seems to go in the opposite direction. Amazon, on its part, states in its news release that it is committed to investing and testing new experiences for customers, but it is vague with regard to implementation of JWO in its own stores. Hence, the answer now to such wondering seems to be that it is less likely. While there was a speculation back in 2019 that Amazon might adapt the stores in its Whole Foods chain to apply the format of Go unmanned stores, such a thought can now be perished; moreover, the chain of Go stores continued to behave like an experiment to the end as it looked to be some seven years ago. Amazon is more inclined to abandon using its home-grown transformative technology in its stores.
Writing in Fortune magazine website (Fortune.com, 29 January 2026), Phil Wahba criticizes Amazon harshly for its mistakes but then offers a bright side. Amazon had to learn some hard lessons about brick-and-mortar retailing. The title of his article reveals an essential lesson: “Amazon Is Closing Its Futuristic Go and Fresh Stores — Showing Logistics and Tech Aren’t Enough to Make Old-School Retail Work” (italics added to highlight the lesson). Wahba refers to Go and Fresh as “failed experiments”, and mentions previous ‘flops’ with physical stores in other areas (e.g., books, kitchenware, clothing). He points to the weakness of Amazon, elaborating on the title: “In brick-and-mortar retail, logistic and operational excellence is not enough on its own. Creating an appealing in-store experience requires merchandising and presentation prowess”. This is true for Fresh and Go chains. Yet, the mindset of Amazon.com is different, technology-driven and virtual, which is more difficult to break away from than it may have been expected in the company (and also by advocates or optimists elsewhere who wanted to see it succeed).
On the bright side, Wahba commends the strength of Amazon in its pragmatic approach, accepting failure, cutting their losses and moving forward. He describes how Amazon practices this approach with new concepts it is developing and experimenting (see examples described above). Amazon did try to soften a little the recognition of its retreat and failure, but it also shows how the company moves on — as put concisely by Wahba, the ability of Amazon to learn and correct makes it “successful in almost everything it does”.
Like a modern-day phoenix, the venture of Amazon in physical retail proceeds to its next stage. The company continues to develop new ideas and concepts and to test, experiment and implement them in brick-and-mortar stores. Its top management seems to remain focused on improving the customer experience. The shut-down of the unmanned Go stores and abandoning the Just Walk Out technology is received with a puzzling surprise and bitter sting primarily due to the expectations Amazon raised about the promise and goals of its new shopping experience concept. The leading management will need to enhance aspects specific and typical to the physical space of stores (e.g., design, visual merchandising, personal service) and related technological solutions that facilitate the customer-shopper experience. Besides, never say never again — at some point in the future Amazon may come up again with a smart technological solution for self-reliant shopping that works out better and that shoppers can apply by discretion.
Consumer / Shopper / Customer Behaviour 