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Amazon closing its Fresh and Go stores

• add-sub-mul-div 8mo ago
  Did the humans pretending to be the AI unionize?
• HardCodedBias 8mo ago
  Once their vision for "grab and go" vanished due to technological infeasibility [1] the entire premise for the stores vanished as well. I suspect that they wanted to take a hail marry to see if somehow it was possible to get much greater efficiency compared to standard grocers, and it looks like that failed. [1] it may come back. The technology is rapidly improving but they have bigger fish to fry ATM.
  • ge96 8mo ago
    What's interesting I know of a company in the industrial space that is trying to do this still (stuff on a shelf, grab and go, no human interaction).
• willio58 8mo ago
  I thought they already did close them. I know at some point they got caught basically paying people to watch cameras to figure out what products people we're grabbing. I'm sure were either at the point or very close to the point where AI can successfully do this basically 100% of the time. So I doubt it's the tech aspect of this, more just the grossness a person feels walking into a store with Amazon's name on it. Compare this to whole foods.
  • fencepost 8mo ago
    I think the Go stores mostly bit the dust after that reveal, but they were also mostly small convenience store operations. I actually saw one at the airport recently, that's a situation where I can see it making sense as an option. The Fresh stores are basically a conventional grocery store, with electronic tags for every item and quirky pricing. They also have "smart carts" with built in weight sensing and multiple cameras so you can basically put open bags in, say "ready to go" then shop by scanning a UPC before placing each item in the cart. Unscanned item? Error. Weight mismatch? Probably an error but I've never tried. The carts are running what looks like a Linux-based UI with some stuff in docker, I grabbed a picture of a shutdown screen on one not too long ago.
• xnx 8mo ago
  Coincidentally(?) they are open their first big box retail store: https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/01/09/amazon-plans-first-big-box-retail-store-in-chicago-suburb.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/01/09/amazon-plans-first-big-b...
  • brightball 8mo ago
    That will be interesting to watch.
  • rob74 8mo ago
    When I saw the picture at the start of the article, I briefly thought they would do it like IKEA and let people pick the articles directly from the Amazon warehouse...
    • joezydeco 8mo ago
      If you've ever been in a Fresh store, that's kind of what it was as well. I saw maybe 20% off-the-street customers, the rest were AMZN workers filling delivery orders.
• cmiles8 8mo ago
  Their fate seemed sealed when it was revealed a bit back that the “just walk out” technology was more hype than substance. Just lots of people watching what you’re doing on camera vs an actual AI that worked well at mass deployment scale. A good idea, poorly executed. Reports said the “AI” was largely 1000+ people in India watching the cameras. If Amazon actually managed to build AI that worked well at a decent cost point it would have been great since nobody likes those silly self checkout machines. What’s amusing about all of this is that before it got leaked that it was basically a bunch of people in India watching cameras Amazon folks spoke about the tech like there was some super secret AI they developed. Since that story broke nobody there seems to want to talk about “just walk out” anymore.
  • lumost 8mo ago
    Even that didn't work well, when I was at an airport recently I had investigated 4-5 items as I had some time to kill. When I was walking out it wanted to bill me for 70 dollars even though I only had a bottle of water and a candy bar. I have little trust that a corporate behemoth will do right by me and refund the discrepancy at an unspecified later time as it says it will on checkout.
    • itsamario 8mo ago
      They pay the most for human involvement. Wages, special conditions, and insurance are exponentially higher than their plans of warehouse to end-user via lockers and drones.
    • rurp 8mo ago
      This keeps me away from these sorts of stores if I can avoid them, which is pretty much always (so far, anyway). I would be absolutely shocked if the error rate was comparable to a normal checkout process and I don't want to waste the cognitive overhead of either wondering how much I'm getting ripped off by a corporation or having to go back and review and try to resolve overcharges.
  • usefulposter 8mo ago
    AI: Actually Individuals¹ ¹ Individuals manning a labyrinthine system of cameras and sensor fusion, like hawks, logging the precise moment you plop a Twix into your basket! Praise Bezos!
• wetpaws 8mo ago
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• justonceokay 8mo ago
  I’m in an interesting place. Here in Seattle I am two blocks from one of the largest Amazon Fresh stores. It was built on the former location of a local grocer. The construction was almost complete before Covid hit, but Amazon shuttered the store during that time. As a result there was no groceries in my neighborhood from 2018-2023. Now it seems Amazon is going to leave us a grocery desert yet again. They were piloting smart carts at the location. The cart scans your items so checking out you just push the cart through a scanner that weighs it. But this invention was like a microcosm of Amazon’s whole fuckup with groceries. The problem with the store wasn’t that I couldn’t check out fast enough, it’s that it was a shit grocery store. They had popular products but they were missing all the unpopular, low margin products you need to actually cook (baking powder, shortening, tomato paste, soy sauce…). They only hire non-union jobs program people at the registers because Amazon believes that cashier is a sub-human role. The previous store had an owner who would wander the aisles and chat with customers. The new store has Europeans with clipboards who watch you as you shop.
  • crises-luff-6b 8mo ago
    [dead]
  • SirFatty 8mo ago
    "non-union jobs program people at the registers because Amazon believes that cashier is a sub-human role." What grocery stores still have union workers?
    • The-Bus 8mo ago
      The UFCW claims they represent at least 800,000 grocery workers across the US. I had a job as a union worker in a supermarket, and am glad that's still available to others. https://www.ufcw.org/actions/campaign/albertsons-and-safeway-union/ https://www.ufcw.org/actions/campaign/albertsons-and-safeway...
    • deleted 8mo ago
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    • 8mo ago
• nothercastle 8mo ago
  They never made sense to have but I’m sure someone made a huge career and got lots of bonuses for this initiative
  • dlcarrier 8mo ago
    John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods, mentioned at the end of his autiobiography The Whole Story that that there wasn't much collaboration within the higher-ups at Amazon. From the gist of it, I wouldn't be surprised if the internal retail division was trying to outshine the Whole Foods division by throwing technology at everything, useful or not, because that's what Amazon corporate appreciates.
• mjr00 8mo ago
  > On April 4, 2024, it was revealed that Amazon's "Just Walk Out" technology was supported by approximately 1,000 Indian workers who manually reviewed transactions. Despite claims of being fully automated through computer vision, a significant portion of transactions required this manual verification. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Go ) Wonder how much of this is due to economics since computer vision tech never reached the expected performance + outsourced workers got (relatively) much more expensive after COVID.
  • theanonymousone 8mo ago
    Why did "outsourced workers get (relatively) much more expensive after"?
    • mjr00 8mo ago
      Great question. I'm not an economist so I have no idea why. The outsourcing rates I've all seen have gotten way higher in the past ~10 years though.
      • Insanity 8mo ago
        Beyond just the usual inflation? I'm not an economist either, but I also assume that as the country attracts more local talent for local companies, the competition for outsourcing becomes harder. (i.e, you now have to pay more than the local companies). All just speculation on my part though, I really have no clue either.
        • PaulHoule 8mo ago
          People from Bangalore were telling me it was getting crazy expensive to live there (by Indian standards) circa 2013.
    • foxyv 8mo ago
      Essentially the thinking went. If everyone is remote, why not hire remote workers from countries that are a lot cheaper. Suddenly you had a hard time finding contractors and FTEs from those countries because everyone was hiring them. At the same time it got really hard for entry level developers in the USA to find work. The supply/demand curve shifted and now those workers are becoming more expensive while domestic workers are becoming cheaper.
• nayroclade 8mo ago
  I always found the "Amazon 4-Star" name funny. Presumably when it was first pitched internally it was called "Amazon 5-Star", then they realised that meant they basically couldn't sell anything, since nothing popular gets a full 5 stars. So they changed it to "4-Star", which just sounds awkward, and lacks the suggestion of top-quality that "5-Star" would. Instead, it's like the "Amazon Not-too-bad" store. I was amazed that they actually went ahead with it.
  • boredtofears 8mo ago
    Also funny because there are many product categories on amazon where if its not above 4.5 its probably shit
  • giraffe_lady 8mo ago
    Shoulda just bit the bullet and gone with "4.8-star." I'm sure they talked about it and yeah it's goofy and awkward but it would get the meaning across and maybe show a bit of a sense of humor and that's exactly why they never ever could.
    • ainiriand 8mo ago
      Good sense of humor at Amazon... Yeah right.
    • bootlooped 8mo ago
      They could have followed the lead of TV manufacturers and called it "5 Star Class" (4.5 star)
  • deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
  • paulddraper 8mo ago
    Yeah it’s kinda like a dollar store but instead of focusing on the upside (cost) it reminded you of the downside (quality).
  • eithed 8mo ago
• s08148692 8mo ago
  Shame, shopping there felt like magic. I hope the technology is developed in future without having to rely on remote workers validating transactions. Definitely felt like the future of shopping
  • deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
  • amelius 8mo ago
    In what ways?
  • slipnslider 8mo ago
    Isn't the same tech used in stadiums? At least in Seattle we can just walk out without paying, even alcohol. Obviously we have to scan our CC or something similar to get in but I always thought it was using the same Amazon tech. So even though these stores are closing, the tech is widely used and likely expanding and succeeding
    • cheeze 8mo ago
      Still kind of pointless though. Someone has to check ID and im WA state, open the beers for you. Kind of defeated the purpose of just walk out. Since I couldn't... Just walk out.
  • kilroy123 8mo ago
    I quite liked the ones in London. I loved the experience of just walking in and out really quick. I knew someone who worked at Amazon UK and they told me years ago they were doing very baldy and there was talk of them closing. So I'm not surprised to hear this at all.
• blinding-streak 8mo ago
  The headline in their corporate press release says "Amazon doubles down on online grocery delivery and Whole Foods Market expansion to reach more customers" That's one way to spin things I guess.
  • fencepost 8mo ago
    The Fresh store near me that I stop in at seems to double as a warehouse for some of those delivery orders, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of them just stop having customer access and shift to entirely staffed pick-and-pack for delivery.
• proee 8mo ago
  Has anyone used their go stores? I'm curious how the experience felt from a consumer standpoint. Do you feel welcomed or more like a thief? I remember WAY back in the day when Arby's implemented touch screen ordering (on CRTs!) and it was a very quirky process. An Arby's employee would sit behind the counter and stare at you while you spent 5 minutes poking a CRT display. Very slow and very impersonal. They discontinued them in a short period of time.
  • semiquaver 8mo ago
    They’re fine and work as advertised. One weird thing is you don’t get the receipt for 10-20 minutes, presumably while humans are viewing the footage. The main thing I use it for is convenient returns, which is why I’m disappointed in this news. I hardly ever buy things there other than things like gum or chips.
  • sheept 8mo ago
    our university has been rolling out just walk out markets across campus due to rampant stealing. shopping there doesn't feel like stealing, but the store design feels oppressive with racks of cameras and thick black shelves because it's designed for sensors first not humans one minor downside (especially since I don't live on campus anymore) is that in order to walk around and peruse the shelves, I have to give them my payment info just to enter
    • catgirlinspace 8mo ago
      Here they replaced all the markets that were staffed by people with these big vending machines that are 3 or 4 refrigerated cabinets (even chips are refrigerated). You pay, wait a bit for it to process it, and then it unlocks the doors and you grab whatever. And if it gets it wrong there’s no dispute process to tell it you didn’t pick something up (I think there is an email listed but I didn’t care enough the time it messed up to send an email). And half the time when you click the pay button to finish, it’ll complain about a door not locking.
  • kube-system 8mo ago
    Every time I walk into a McDonalds I see people who will rather stand 5 minutes at the counter waiting for a human cashier than use one of the available kiosks. I'm sure some are paying cash but there are certainly people who are just not comfortable with technology. The Go stores were a great experience but they would certainly be uncomfortable for anyone other than early-adopter or tech-forward types of people. I would just walk in with my own bag, and put items directly from the shelf into the bag, and walk out the door. It was extremely convenient and fast once you got over how weird it felt. I think they could have done a lot more in giving social clues on both the way in and way out.
• minimaxir 8mo ago
  The Amazon Go stores in San Francisco were weird. They always had no people shopping in them, which would make sense given the increased efficiency, but it amplified the "am I stealing?" vibe. And the cost of goods wasn't made any cheaper than comparable stores in SF despite the touted increased efficiency.
  • frogperson 8mo ago
    LOL, any found efficiency doesnt go to the consumer. The evidence is the widening wealth gap over the last 40 years. Its trickle up economics.
    • jgbuddy 8mo ago
      does competition not naturally drive competitors to reduce margins?
      • TulliusCicero 8mo ago
        It does, though you need sufficient competition. In particular, it's useful to have new, upstart companies that are 'hungry' for market share, and aren't excessively tied down to old ways of doing things.
  • 1980phipsi 8mo ago
    The lack of people in them was the thing about going to one that always felt weird to me.
  • pwthornton 8mo ago
    The pitch from Bezos -- and it's a dumb pitch -- was basically just to make checking out faster by avoiding interacting with humans (but this can be achieved by increasing the number of cashiers and baggers). The pitch was never lower prices. The combo of all the tech and the army of Indians watching video was not cheap. And because they were relying on computer vision and Indian vision, they had to get rid of all their fresh meals because they were too hard to calculate prices for. So, it ended up being a half-assed 7-Eleven concept. The whole concept was made by someone who hates humanity. I personally prefer stores with actual cashiers. What I don't like are lines, but that is very solvable. The organic grocer near me is super fast to check out.
• _fat_santa 8mo ago
  I don't live around any Amazon Fresh stores so I never saw them though I did see the technology in use at several airports (though I've never personally used it). IMO I think places like airports are the best place for something like this, people are usually in a rush so not having to wait in line to checkout is nice and you don't have to worry about security as much because everyone there is a ticketed passenger (only saw them post-security) and even if someone did try stealing they wouldn't get very far.
  • onetokeoverthe 8mo ago
    not get far? at an airport?
  • vel0city 8mo ago
    I saw these in several different airports. It usually had multiple people staffed at the gate to get in and out meanwhile most of the other snack vendors often only had a single person employed. So you spend a few hundred thousand dollars extra on all the cameras, many millions on all the design, pay all the overseas contractors to manually review the transactions, and you still end up with twice the in-person staff than the average store in the airport.
• wolvoleo 8mo ago
  Hmm Amazon fresh was useless anyway. It was this weird niche of grocery delivery but for small urgent orders. I just don't have that need like ever, if I need a bottle of shampoo or a head of lettuce urgently I'll just go to the corner shop. Edit: oh oops I see this is about physical fresh stores, we never had those in the first place. Here in Europe Amazon fresh is a weird service for quick small grocery orders. For the bigger ones they partner with a local supermarket ("dia" here in Spain). But I never do grocery delivery because I never make any plans, I just make my life up as I go along :) But Amazon fresh here is expensive and still slow (2hrs) so really not good for anything. Amazon go I'm not even sure what that is.
  • dangus 8mo ago
    What you’re talking about is the delivery product, not the brick and mortar grocery stores, which are not much different from your typical big chain standard grocery outlet.
    • wolvoleo 8mo ago
      Yeah we don't get those here, sorry. Didn't know they even existed
  • MikeTheGreat 8mo ago
    > Amazon go I'm not even sure what that is. And now you don't have to! Ba-dump-ching! I'll be here all week, folks! :)
  • direwolf20 8mo ago
    Amazon go I'm not even sure what that is, must be something like Pokémon go to the polls.
  • jgbuddy 8mo ago
    Yeah these are all going to be wrapped up into their same day delivery service. Amazon fresh was very expensive and required a fee on top of prime which unsurprisingly nobody wants to do
  • 8mo ago
• wnevets 8mo ago
  Fortunately my Amazon branded subcutaneous chip still works at Wholefoods.
• g947o 8mo ago
  These bastards drove out some nice stores near me (supposedly the lease ended and did not renew) and rebuilt the buildings in order to open an Amazon Fresh location. That Amazon Fresh store never opened. Now we have a giant empty storefront nobody uses.
  • barbazoo 8mo ago
    But for a brief moment there was a chance it would make the shareholders more wealthy. Surely that’s worth it. /s Wondering what the municipality’s responsibility there wrt zoning.
  • bumblehean 8mo ago
    Same here. A local grocery store and several other local businesses got bought out and demolished so Amazon could build a new Fresh store. I guess Amazon pulled out of the project halfway through, since for the last ~2 years there's been a half-finished building just sitting there completely abandoned in our town center.
  • happyopossum 8mo ago
    Wait, how does a store that never opened drive out an existing store? That’s not how commercial leases work… Given that a supermarket abandoned that location, and Amazon never opened on their either, perhaps that location or the lease price simply doesn’t work for a grocery store?
    • g947o 8mo ago
      The tenants needed to vacate before the owner tore down the building.
      • throwaway173738 8mo ago
        And then the new lessee just doesn’t finish the new building so it’s no longer possible to build on the land without tearing down or finishing the project at great cost to any new lessee. Which would be waste but you’d have to take Amazon or whatever shell company they used to court.
• augusteo 8mo ago
  The "1000 people in India watching cameras" reveal was the moment the magic died. Once you know the wizard is just a guy behind a curtain, you can't unsee it. The interesting question isn't whether the tech was ready. It wasn't. The question is whether Amazon learned anything useful from the attempt. Computer vision for retail checkout is a legitimate hard problem. Occlusion, similar-looking products, people changing their minds. I've worked on CV pipelines and the gap between "works in the demo" and "works at scale" is brutal. My guess: they collected a ton of training data from those human reviewers. Whether they'll use it for a v2 or just write it off, who knows.
  • PKop 8mo ago
    Aside from the magic dying, which I agree with, another commenter in this thread says there could be false positives (whether from Indians or AI doesn't matter) you'd have to 1) notice by studying your bill later and 2) resolve by requesting refunds online. Knowing this, it was over before it ever started. Beyond the masses of people already having aversion to the oddness of how it worked and likely never wanting to try it, these and others would swear off the store forever the first time they ever got charged for something they didn't take. No one wants to monitor and fix erroneous purchase errors.
  • GorbachevyChase 8mo ago
    I wonder if this is what FSD really is sometimes.
    • qwerpy 8mo ago
      You might think so because of how human-like it drives, but I’ve driven for quite a few miles out of signal range and it still works.
• timmg 8mo ago
  My wife will be heartbroken. We moved recently and she loves shopping at Amazon Fresh. (Though part of the reason was that it was never busy :)
  • MikeTheGreat 8mo ago
    I don't know what your life/lives are like, and far be it for me to tell you how to live, but if your schedule allows it try shopping later at night. I show up at CostCo, on weekdays, like 30 minutes before closing time and it's _wonderful_. Few people, nobody blocking lanes while they consider their choices, etc. Same goes for Safeway, Fred Meyer, Trader Joe's, etc. It doesn't work so great if you've got young kids, or you want to come home from work and just stay home (reasonable), but it's worth considering :)
  • deleted 8mo ago
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• SeanAnderson 8mo ago
  Well, that article made me nervous for a second! I love my Amazon Fresh grocery delivery. I started using it during Covid, but could never go back. It's so nice having groceries feel automated instead of a semi-daily chore. I eat much healthier and the rationale for using DoorDash evaporated. Absolutely zero interest in a physical version that lets me check-out easier, though. So, I can see why they're making this switch.
  • dylan604 8mo ago
    > It's so nice having groceries feel automated instead of a semi-daily chore One of a my previous jobs had a grocery store on the way home. I took to stopping in pretty much daily. It allowed for a bit of decompression after work before coming home. It was very convenient to always have exactly what was needed for that night while being therapeutic at the same time. After switching jobs, losing that was probably the most noticeable thing about the new job
• jordemort 8mo ago
  I really liked the local Amazon Fresh, until they discontinued "just walk out" and replaced it with those hellish smart carts. I scanned one item successfully with the cart, got completely stuck trying to get it to scan a second one, handed the cart back to the employee, and never went back.
  • dlcarrier 8mo ago
    I just pay cash at the regular cashier. The smart carts aren't the speed-up Amazon wants them to be, but at least the faster traditional shopping method is still an option, unlike Amazon Go.
• dangus 8mo ago
  I’m not surprised about Amazon Go but I’m surprised about Amazon Fresh. They almost seemed like an extension of Whole Foods to a more mainstream suburban market, and I thought they had solid foot traffic.
• dfajgljsldkjag 8mo ago
  I like Whole Foods because it feels warm and the food looks good. The Amazon stores felt like walking inside a vending machine and that is not how people want to buy dinner.
• kotaKat 8mo ago
  Curious thought - will they be shutting down other “just walk out” powered stuff like Hudson Nonstops in airports? I also know some Amazon warehouses had an entire Just Walk Out powered concessions area in their breakroom for purchasing snacks in partnership with one of their canteen vendors.
  • count 8mo ago
    Nah, they're still actively selling/implementing the backing service/tech for other orgs.
    • kotaKat 8mo ago
      That’s kinda what I figured. At this point it seems like they all have the same general configuration of coolers and shelves and the same cameras all angled in the same setup everywhere so I assume it’s all down to one very strict CV model or something…
• otikik 8mo ago
  Oh no! Anyway
• maininformer 8mo ago
  This will forever be a masterpiece https://youtu.be/CNoa-9TBH30?si=Zl7hdZ1fBqeXHM_8 https://youtu.be/CNoa-9TBH30?si=Zl7hdZ1fBqeXHM_8
• Bluecobra 8mo ago
  Doesn’t surprise me. I frequently shop at Amazon Fresh in store and it’s a mediocre experience. It’s a poorly run store with no visible manager making sure things are in order. You constantly have to work around employees fulfilling online orders and they aren’t helpful. I always find expired groceries/produce on the shelf so I have to spend a lot of extra time inspecting each item. The only reason I put up with their nonsense is that some of their prices are insane and they have easy returns, for example $0.85 for a box of Barilla pasta. They actually don’t accept returns in store and just refund you automatically in the app (Returnless returns). It’s pretty silly and rife for abuse. I also found a loophole with the Amazon.com return grocery credit. The systems are separate for the $10 off $40 coupon and you just scan a QR code in the store to get it. It turns out you can just take a photo of their QR code and reuse it over and over again.
  • liveoneggs 8mo ago
    The delivery shoppers are especially bad at whole foods. There really must be a critical mass where having a grocery warehouse makes more sense than these people meandering around.
    • Bluecobra 8mo ago
      Yep, my local Amazon Fresh store felt like it was already a distribution center with the cold fluorescent lighting, gray shelves and gray concrete floors.
    • cjrp 8mo ago
      See Ocado, although things aren't going so well for them at the moment.
    • kevstev 8mo ago
      There is actually. I used to work in grocery e-commerce. The model is pickers in a store --> a "dark store" that looks more like a home Depot with only pickers, not open to public --> warehouse like environment with various levels of automation. This was a bit before the model of having Uber driver type delivery though. I am guessing that having the deliverers be close to the deliverees make it more economical to keep them in stores until a larger scale is reached. The dark store+ model was also predicated on a more factory floor like environment with only FTEs present. Think pallets moving about among the pickers- not too hard to work around IMHO but maybe the lawyers and insurers feel differently. I still feel the overreaching factor is that in dense urban centers there is no cheap commercial/industrial space that is also in close proximity to customers.
• danans 8mo ago
  These stores were solving for an Amazon problem (brick and mortar stores without the expense of workers), and not any significant customer problem. They often put them in places, hoping that people would be attracted by marginally lower prices and brand extension, all while removing one of the primary appeals (for most people) of in person grocery shopping: impromptu community socialization, even if it is simply greeting the checkout worker. I'm not surprised they failed.
• jedberg 8mo ago
  I don't know about other areas, but here in the Bay Area (or at least Silicon Valley) our Whole Foods has subsumed all the services provided by Amazon Fresh (and Go really never worked). So we're not really losing any services, just the brand name.
  • testfoobar 8mo ago
    I miss the old Whole Foods.
    • NickC25 8mo ago
      I do too. Completely different vibe from when it was independent to when Bezos bought it.
      • thegreatpeter 8mo ago
        can you enumerate the differences?
• DrinkingRedStar 8mo ago
  Doesn't surprise me either. Anecdotal story coming, but there is physical location on Philadelphia, and I stopped by as I needed an item for dinner that night, and it was on my way home. Store was kind of bare, and poorly organized. But the kicker is they didn't accept any form of mobile wallet! They had an identical POS system to wholefoods which takes it just fine. So I quickly put my items back and headed to Giant.. Haven't been back since
  • thijson 8mo ago
    They have a good price on take out pizza. Unlimited toppings, and with Prime membership it's $8 something for a large pizza. It was probably their loss leader to get people in the store. I felt like the store was usually pretty empty when I was there. I wonder if Amazon will keep Whole Foods too.
• benbristow 8mo ago
  They literally only put them in unaffordable areas. Like the only one I know is in a residential area of Southwalk in London not far from the TATE Modern museum. I don't even live in London. Been in one once for the novelty as they've never been useful.
• advisedwang 8mo ago
  The technology lives on, as Amazon "Just Walk Out". But rather than general grocery stores, it is used for concessions at stadiums and places like that. I guess it turned out that the need more human intervention than they hoped, so the cost is too high for regular stores. However at places where a premium can be charged for high throughput or a low friction experience then the cost of the human intervention can be recouped.
  • RIMR 8mo ago
    Just a heads up that only the Amazon Go stores did the "just walk out" shopping thing. Amazon Fresh stores were pretty much just regular grocery stores. They had shopping carts with the self-checkout built in, but that was the extent of the technology.
    • rawrenstein 8mo ago
      There was a concept Amazon Fresh store with “Just Walk Out” technology on Capitol Hill in Seattle. They closed it down a couple of years back but the brand was absolutely Amazon Fresh.
• dopamean 8mo ago
  I honestly thought they closed them alreay.
• a-dub 8mo ago
  amazon fresh never really made much sense to me alongside wfm.
• justincormack 8mo ago
  Every time I check I am still amazed that the Amazon Hair Salon in London is still open. https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=26247109031 https://www.amazon.co.uk/b?node=26247109031
  • kilroy123 8mo ago
    I live close to that place. When I walk by I'm dumbfounded too and often think who would go there?
• vlaksh365 8mo ago
  I guess that is curtains for the Amazon Go kiosks in Seattle's Climate Pledge Arena? That whole arena was setup as a poorly veiled Amazon store...
• fencepost 8mo ago
  The Fresh stores are kind of a weird shopping experience with a mix of normal, overpriced and bizarrely cheap at different times. I've gotten into the habit of stopping in to wander the aisles and check prices because of it (e.g. I stocked up on a bunch of canned soup when most (but not all) Progresso soups were $0.44 a month or two back, and I picked up some microwavable rice+quinoa pouches for my wife at $0.35 each a couple weeks ago, but the inconsistency and overall not great prices mean it can't be my go-to grocery destination. I'm sure the one by me will be closing since there's a significantly larger Whole Foods just a few miles away.
  • system2 8mo ago
    They had cherries for $1.99 per pound while Ralphs or trader joes sold them for $5.99 per pound. I ate as much as I could while it lasted.
• golbez9 8mo ago
  In my town they redeveloped an empty corner lot at a busy intersection just for the Amazon Fresh store. I guess it'll go back to being empty again...
• deleted 8mo ago
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• deepflow 8mo ago
  We have Żabka Nano which is self-serve cashierless shop in Poland. You just swipe you card at the entrance, get whatever you want and walk out. I think they use computer vision system to detect the products taken from the shelves. It kinda amazes me because it's what Amazon promised but failed to deliver.
  • dionian 8mo ago
    Yea well the other thing is zabka is an awesome store, the amazon store sucked
• wagwang 8mo ago
  If we lived in a high trust society, you could just trust people to scan their own items and walk out.
  • throwaway2037 8mo ago
    Can you name some high trust societies?
  • jandrese 8mo ago
    Human nature probably prevents that from ever being a reality, at least at scale. In a tiny tight knit community where literally everybody knows everybody else maybe you could pull that off, but even then you have to get a bit lucky. In a world where anonymity is a thing there will always be at least one inherent shithead who ruins it for everyone. Even if you do have a community where it's true, that can change anytime someone has a kid or someone moves in.
  • IvyMike 8mo ago
    The Dash Cart was pretty close.
  • dlcarrier 8mo ago
    Most grocery stores I shop at have merchandise outside the front doors and between the doors and the registers. You could easily walk out with unpaid merchandise and no one would notice.
• surlyadopter 8mo ago
  Disappointing. The shopping experience is mediocre and prices/quality are no better than other local supermarkets. However, I love my local Amazon Fresh store because it's a super convenient Amazon return location...
• jgbuddy 8mo ago
  The general force behind this is the expansion of sub-same-day delivery which they have been pushing hard for the last year. Amazon fresh was a more traditional model which didn't fit in well with amazon's strengths (fulfillment, automation) because they tried to enter a market they were directly competing with (in-person shopping) and charged users for delivery in addition to their existing membership. It's a welcome change IMO, amazon groceries are super cheap online and now delivery is free. They have been removing the fresh name from products for a few months now and replacing with amazon grocery. Certainly less confusion for consumers, at least Related: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-same-day-fresh-grocery-delivery-united-states https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-same-day-fres... https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-same-day-fresh-grocery-delivery-united-states https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/retail/amazon-same-day-fres...
• vondur 8mo ago
  Not surprised. Unless the item is on sale (which can be very good deals) their pricing is no better than a standard supermarket and usually far more expensive than a Target or WalMart. And they quickly gave up on the scan and go where the smart shopping card read everything in the basket and automatically charged your Amazon account, so it was back to regular checkout.
• tempire 8mo ago
  It's a trap!
• IvyMike 8mo ago
  The "just walk out" surveillance system sucked, but the Dash Cart shopping was actually pretty nice/
• saos 8mo ago
  Not surprised at all
• EngineerUSA 8mo ago
  Amazon keeps shutting Restaurants, their retail stores, etc., but I for one am glad they are at least trying. I agree that the fiasco around the Indians running the show was a PR nightmare for their idea, but large companies running startup like ideas should be encouraged rather than disparaged (and I am no fan of Amazon just to be clear). I think this is one of those ideas where execution failed. If you are a busy worker, it is great to just head there and grab what you need, and walk out. Just faster all around.
• CamouflagedKiwi 8mo ago
  Yeah, they've just closed the one near me. I think they underestimated how hard it would be, at least in the UK - the existing supermarket chains are already competitive, mostly pretty good, and people have surprisingly high brand loyalty to them. I don't think I've even talked to anyone who has shopped in Amazon Fresh, or even wanted to.
• maxfurman 8mo ago
  Wow, they just opened a brand new one in Philly less than two months ago. I've yet to shop there and I guess now I never will. It must have cost millions to clear that site and build a whole new building there. Just to abandon it. I wish I had money to waste like that. Edit: it actually opened in August, so it was around for about six months instead of two.
• nunez 8mo ago
  This was the more surprising bit for me: https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-supersizes-its-walmart-rivalry-with-new-big-box-retail-concept/ https://www.geekwire.com/2026/amazon-supersizes-its-walmart-... Amazon straight up wants to just become Walmart. Or maybe Sears is a more apt comparison given their mail-order beginnings.
• dgunay 8mo ago
  I've only been to the Amazon Fresh in my neighborhood, haven't been to other locations, here is what my experience was like: They resisted implementing self checkout for years before eventually folding. No digital wallets though, you have to either use plastic or link it to your Amazon account. The whole dash cart system was a solution in search of a problem IMO. I'm already able to check out about as efficiently as possible. Frontloading the scanning time isn't really an amazing improvement. The store was never crowded enough for it to matter. My biggest problem with the store was that it was lacking random pantry staples and supplies that you would expect from your primary grocer. Several times I showed up in desperate need of something for a recipe or household task and they just wouldn't have it. The produce was actually decent quality and competitively priced, but my alternative (the local Ralph's) I think just had some kind of curse or something on it because the produce at that specific location was a consistent level of awful observed over 5 years. I hope they replace it with a whole foods, much better store IMO.
  • spprashant 8mo ago
    I guess I am in the minority but I really liked the dash cart. Apart from the occasional niggle, it worked as advertised once I understood the system. I get my own bags to the store, so I can directly bag items as I go and just walk out when done.
• sodafountan 8mo ago
  I stopped into the Amazon Fresh in Broomall, PA, to check it out not too long ago. It just looks bland and dystopian from the outside, and not much about it is impressive from the inside. I've worked with computers and technology my whole life, and the entrance to the store just confused me. If I remember correctly, I had to scan the Amazon app on my phone to enter the building. Once inside, it felt like a warehouse; the aisles were too small, and the food selection wasn't even really that great. (From memory, it was a few years ago that I went) All in all, it's a cool concept on paper with absolutely terrible execution. Only went once, bought some snacks, and left.
• julianozen 8mo ago
  Amazon Fresh had no reason to exist. They closed down a great Whole Foods near me and replaced it with a store with minimal changes to safeway/albertsons. Heavy carts for automatic scanning that barely saved time at checkout. I will miss the grab and go tech in the Amazon stores. I was hoping they would successfully manage to sell that to other stores and make the tech wide spread in bodegas, gas stations and 711s
• awill 8mo ago
  this is pretty surprising. Didn't they spent a fortune on the camera tech for Amazon Go?
• deleted 8mo ago
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• aendruk 8mo ago
  For about five years an Amazon Fresh in Seattle was literally my closest grocery store but I never once set foot in there, simply because it felt icky and dystopian to let Amazon any further into my life. I wonder how many others felt similarly.
  • dlcarrier 8mo ago
    I went to one once, and it still worked like a regular grocery store, too. The only reason I never went back was because they were expensive and in an awkward location. There were some items only discounted to Prime members, but for everything else, you could forgo the technology and Amazon integration and pay with cash or a card. It's not like the Amazon Go stores where you have to use their system.
• bahmboo 8mo ago
  Amazon Fresh provided lots of good jobs in my community. Family members worked there. Good pay and they employed locally (or can walk to work). Same with whole foods. Too bad Amazon couldn't make it work. Interesting timing with their push for more online grocery offerings.
  • bahmboo 8mo ago
    Went to return some packages at the local Fresh store on Jackson. Huge long line to get in. Eventually wound up doing some shopping. Place was very full (within fire regulations of course). Some good security and organizing folk. A tip bowl at the return desk that said "help the employees get wasted". All the pricing is electronic and puterized so I'm expecting that at the last minute on the last day the last product will sell for within a cent. Actually knowing Amazon they'll give the staff a huge gimme and nice bonuses. People crap on Amazon but they are a good employe for the little guy. They can't rewrite society so go for that take. Otherwise people are bummed they lost good jobs.
• netfortius 8mo ago
  While https://abc7chicago.com/post/orland-park-village-board-vote-proposed-amazon-retail-warehouse-development-159th-street-lagrange-road/18434847/ https://abc7chicago.com/post/orland-park-village-board-vote-...
• mcintyre1994 8mo ago
  I noticed the other day the Amazon store near me has closed but it says a whole foods market is coming soon, which is another company they own. I wonder how many of them they’ll rebrand and keep in some form like that.
• bilalq 8mo ago
  These were absolutely incredible when they first opened up right on until covid. The blue-apron style meal kits they had were actually really tasty and the gimmicky integration with Alexa to tell you the next step in the recipe was actually kind of useful when you were busy stirring a pot or cutting something and too busy to pull out the recipe card. It was like a 7-Eleven, but with the prices of a normal grocery store and higher quality prepared food. Not needing to deal with checkout felt freeing. I substituted many grocery store runs with a quick walk over to the original Amazon Go back in the day. After covid, it was never the same. Open for shorter windows, closed on Sundays, reduced selection, no more meal kits etc. I had many friends who worked on Amazon Go, so it's a bit sad to see that work come to an end.
  • bob_theslob646 8mo ago
    > I had many friends who worked on Amazon Go, so it's a bit sad to see that work come to an end. What did they do?
• arjie 8mo ago
  I used one in San Francisco once because I wanted to try it out. It was honestly a rather flawless experience for me and I liked it because the scan gate and minders (it was when it launched - I don't know if they kept them) kept the shoplifters out. Shoplifters are unpleasant to share a store with. Unsurprisingly, those who skip some social norms also skip other ones. Anyway, I didn't go back after the first time because it was more like a corner store than a grocery store. Bags of chips and sandwiches in plastic boxes and so on. Overall, the modern Whole Foods is a much better experience. Guards at the entrance to keep unpleasant people out, a fairly quick check-out experience, and the ability to scan your palm instead of having to pull out a credit card or tap your watch. About the only improvement that I would personally like is a Fast Shopper bonus where you scan something that maps you to your Amazon Prime profile and if you finish checking out fast you get access to a faster lane. The only downside is when people with large bags of things insist on using the self check-out counters and then stand there having mis-scanned items. Speeding up check-out is a personal life improvement but realistically it would not cause me to shop more, so I understand discontinuing the store.
  • arjie 8mo ago
    Absolute tragedy is checking my email and finding out that Amazon is going to discontinue the palm scan.
    • solfox 8mo ago
      It's confusing why they are discontinuing that feature. It seemed incredibly accurate/fast and was a great way to pay at Whole Foods.
• divbzero 8mo ago
  The local Amazon Fresh is closed this afternoon with a sign reading: We are closed for the remainder of the day. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please come back tomorrow during our normal business hours.
• sparkler123 8mo ago
  The Amazon Fresh in North Seattle had Just Walk Out. Initially you had to "scan in" and "scan out" and then they eventually removed the "scan out" (or scan in? can't remember). From a shopper's perspective, it was pretty good, and I was hopeful they'd figure out the tech. One time they overcharged me for a paper bag and there was no way to dispute it. It was only $0.08, but really rubbed me the wrong way. I know I got a fair bit of stuff for free as they seemed to err on the side of not charging vs. charging if they weren't able to figure it out, though. I actually did find it saved me time. I would go in, grab a couple things, and leave, and it was actually a good experience to do that. I never did full grocery store runs there, though. The aisles were always packed with workers picking/packing orders, which was frustrating to deal with. One thing that was bad about it was that produce was all fixed price. At a normal store you pay per pound for an onion, but there every onion was $1 (or whatever the price was). Giant onion, tiny onion, all the same price. The produce got picked over in weird ways because of that. Then one day they said, "okay, Just Walk Out is gone, it's just a normal grocery store now." Then it just became just a mediocre grocery store. There were definitely periods where aisles could be nearly empty, but lately it's been okay. Prices were great, though -- by far the cheapest in the area. Their hot bar was extremely mediocre. I like the Whole Foods one, but theirs was just... not good. Half the time they didn't even have it stocked with food. They had a little stand up front where kids could get a free piece of fruit, which mine liked. It also had convenient returns for Amazon purchases, which was about half of what I went there for. It was a convenient place for me, and I like it better than Safeway, but I can't say I'm too heartbroken that it's going away. QFC/Sprouts/Town&Country/Safeway are a few minutes in any direction, but they're more expensive. I doubt they'll turn this one into a Whole Foods either.
  • RandallBrown 8mo ago
    You were overcharged .08 cents for a paper bag? Like you were charged $0.16? Or did you not use a bag and were charged anyway?
• sciencesama 8mo ago
  Amazon is losing its freshness
• erickhill 8mo ago
  I wonder this will impact the "just walk out" booze stores at T-Mobile Park (MLB)? Those seem pretty successful.
• mattmaroon 8mo ago
  They built one in my area a few years ago and then never opened it. It’s just been sitting vacant the entire time.
• joshgachnang 8mo ago
  Damn. I just got an email that they'll be discontinuing the palm payment June 3. I've barely used Fresh and Go, but I use this at self checkout at Whole Foods all the time. Beats finding the code to scan and using Apple Pay. > We're reaching out because you have an active Amazon One account. Amazon One palm authentication services will be discontinued at retail businesses on June 3, 2026. You can continue using Amazon One at participating locations until that date. > Amazon will automatically delete Amazon One user data, including palm data. No action is needed from you.
  • voodoo_child 8mo ago
    Same. Bummed about Amazon one palm, I use it all the time.
• deleted 8mo ago
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• thegreatpeter 8mo ago
  What! I loved the Amazon fresh in my neighborhood. It was way better than any other grocery store. I can’t believe this. I hope it at least gets converted to a Whole Foods
• another_twist 8mo ago
  I have never been to an Amazon Fresh store. But I do remember that French chain that trolled Amazon with their humans first approach.
• jzymbaluk 8mo ago
  I live right down the street from an Amazon Go store, and I like it because it's convenient when it's open, but the hours on this store stunk: it closed at 4pm sometimes. I found it very funny that this store advertised itself as a fully automated experience, when in fact there needs to be a worker/manager there all the time for it to be open. If it were actually automated, it could've been open 24/7
  • Schlagbohrer 8mo ago
    Meanwhile in East Asia they have no problem with tons of 24/7/365 stores, even fully vending machine stores. Heck even Europe has vending machine stores that are constantly open without even a door that could be closed, selling grocery basics.
    • seanmcdirmid 8mo ago
      America had 24/7 grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, and even some Walmarts before COVID. Now, at least in my area, thats a thing of the past. Still not as bad as Switzerland where everything closes early on Saturday and is closed on sundays. China has had 24/7 McDonald’s since forever, well, and lord of other things as well. But not grocery stores at least.
      • fc417fc802 8mo ago
        The stores where I'm at in the US stopped being 24/7 long before COVID due to (AFAIK) changes in crime rates. I wish they would do some sort of members program where you could register to gain access after hours. I think they've got more than enough video surveillance to handle any abuse that might arise.
      • jeffrallen 8mo ago
        I don't know if anyone from Switzerland explained why this is to you, or if you are interested. Swiss business hours limits are for worker protection. You are lucky to hang out on HN and work whenever you want. You neighbor who keeps your groceries on the shelf for you is happy to be home with his or her children in the evening instead of in the store. Having a high trust society also includes treating all people with respect, so that they will be willing to trust you. Even the hourly workers who keep the world turning for the rest of us.
• bamboozled 8mo ago
  Another one of these ideas that was the future but for various reasons wasn't. I honestly think in some ways, going to a store is about being around other people, the same as going to a cafe, not necessarily talking, but just being in the presence of others seems to be what many people crave. I largely think it's the appeal of shopping malls.
• dbspin 8mo ago
  The only time I tried one of these it locked my credit card, while visiting the US. Not a fun time.
• Blackstrat 8mo ago
  As one who has spent substantially since Amazon's inception, Amazon in recent years has become an unreliable supplier in my area. Much of the product sold by Amazon is sourced from China and until recently Amazon did little to distinguish name-brand products from knockoffs. That's why companies like J&J weren't making product available on the Amazon site. Amazon Prime is laughable here, frequently taking a week or longer. The local Whole Foods is a mere shadow of its previous incarnation. Of course, most of the bookstore alternatives have been driven out of business. The B&N strategy is more appropriate to competing with Books-a-Million than the old Borders. Overall, Amazon seems more focused on its movie/TV business than it does what created it. And Bezos? Well, it's obvious that righting the ship at Amazon isn't nearly as important as being a jet setting celebrity with a new younger wife and playing with his space ahips. And BTW, I'm in a major city, not some rural town.
• stefap2 8mo ago
  And Amazon also discontinuing Amazon One palm authentication services in whole foods. I wonder if these are related events. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790734 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46790734
• rpncreator 8mo ago
  There are around 12 Amazon Go / Amazon Fresh in the metro Chicago area. Unless all employees are part-time employees (and assuming around 10-ish employees per store), I seriously wonder how they got around Illinois WARN requirements [1] requiring 60 days advance notice of the closures. [1] https://labor.illinois.gov/laws-rules/conmed/warn.html https://labor.illinois.gov/laws-rules/conmed/warn.html
  • deleted 8mo ago
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• freejazz 8mo ago
  What a joke. In the end all it did was effectively outsource the cashiers to India. I'm so exhausted with "tech".
• janicerk 8mo ago
  Never saw these in europe
• deleted 8mo ago
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• erratic_chargi 8mo ago
  Of course it failed, nobody want to shop at a limited selection with mandatory signing up amazon store that closes at like 8. But a 24/7 data driven store that is a last resort would have succeeded. Put slop bowls at business areas, Junk food where there are clubs for drunk people. Moving season in college town, put some stationary and some tools for DIY stuff. In valentines cheap wine and chocolate for the singles, and flowers with top rated gifts for couples.
• system2 8mo ago
  Amazon Go had one of the best turkey pesto sandwiches you could buy for $6. It was my treat after driving back from the dog park. I felt sad after they closed that Go store. Coffee (Starbucks) was free with a minimum purchase of $5, which the sandwich covered. I miss that, but only that. There was literally nothing useful to buy on the go. All weird Amazon products, nothing close to 7-Eleven.