Amazon closed the last of its only two Amazon Fresh Pickup locations, marking the end of another effort by the tech giant to disrupt how and where people get their groceries.
The location at the base of the Starbucks headquarters building in Seattle’s SoDo neighborhood closed in December. Another Fresh Pickup location, on 15th Avenue N.W. in Ballard, closed last January. They were Amazon’s only two such operations in the U.S.
“Like any retailer, we periodically assess our portfolio and make optimization decisions around how we operate,” Amazon spokesperson Jessica Martin said in an emailed statement to GeekWire, adding that the company is working to support affected employees.
The Seattle Times reported the news Wednesday.
The space in SoDo, at 76 S. Lander St., is continuing to operate as usual as an Amazon Hub location — part of the company’s network of pickup and drop-off spaces for Amazon packages.
Amazon Fresh Pickup first launched for Prime members in 2017, offering drive-up grocery pick-up service as well as a drop-off spot for package returns.
GeekWire tested the Ballard facility in May 2017, ordering groceries online and then driving up to a parking spot in front to retrieve them. The location, on the site of a former Chinese restaurant, is currently surrounded by chain link fencing and has lease signs on the building.
Over the years, Amazon Fresh Pickup competed with a number of “click and collect” pickup services at traditional grocery stores, such as Fred Meyer. The trend accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic as people turned to online shopping and ways to avoid being in crowded stores.
In recent years, Amazon’s brick-and-mortar ambitions were reeled in with the closure of multiple physical retail locations, including all of its Amazon 4-star, Books, and Pop Up stores.
Last February, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that the company was pausing the expansion of its Amazon Fresh grocery stores, amid broader cutbacks, “until we have that equation with differentiation and economic value that we like.”
In March, the company closed eight Amazon Go convenience stores.
Amazon still operates have more than 40 Amazon Fresh grocery store locations across the U.S., and more than 15 in the U.K., as well as more than 20 Amazon Go stores in the U.S. There are also more than 500 Amazon-owned Whole Foods Markets in the U.S.
Amazon says its it physical stores sales grew by 6% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2023 to $4.9 billion.
