Amazon is to close all 19 of its UK Fresh stores, less than five years after opening the first.
The company plans to focus its UK grocery offer purely on delivery, including fresh groceries for arrival the same day.
Around 250 people are employed in its UK physical stores, with staff impacted by the plans having entered a consultation.
Five of the 19 stores are to be converted to the Whole Foods Market brand.
Amazon said that in response to strong demand it would be expanding grocery services to new areas. By next year it aims to more than double the number of Amazon UK Prime members who have access to three or more online grocery delivery options through partners Morrisons, Iceland, Co-op, and Gopuff. It said the expansion would result in more than 80% of UK Prime members having access to at least one of its grocery partners.
It will enable shoppers to order fresh groceries including produce, dairy, meat and seafood, as well as baked goods, frozen food and household essentials, for same-day delivery along with other shopping on Amazon.co.uk from 2026.
Amazon said its UK’s grocery growth was outpacing the rest of its UK business, with the number everyday essentials delivered the same or next day increasing by nearly 20% in 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, Amazon’s everyday essentials category including groceries and household items grew nearly twice as fast as all its other categories in the UK, to represent nearly one out of every three units sold on its website.
“Since 2008, we’ve worked hard to innovate to help our customers save time and money when shopping for groceries and household essentials,” said Amazon UK country manager John Boumphrey.
“We continue to invent and invest to bring more choice and convenience to UK customers, enabling them to shop for a wide range of everyday essentials and groceries with low prices and fast delivery through Amazon.co.uk, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods Market stores, alongside our third-party grocery partners, including Morrisons, Co-op, Iceland, and Gopuff.
“We’re deeply invested in the UK’s economic growth and creating opportunities for both customers and employees.
“We’ll be working hard to support any potentially impacted teams throughout these planned changes and are deeply grateful for their dedication. If the proposal moves forward, we’ll support our employees by offering alternative employment opportunities within Amazon wherever possible.”
Amazon looked poised to shake up UK grocery with its ‘Just Walk Out’ technology when it opened its first UK Fresh store in Ealing in early 2021. Major supermarkets responded with their own checkout-free shops, as Amazon announced a plan to have 260 UK Fresh stores by 2025.
However, Amazon began closing them again in January 2023, and supermarkets have not rolled out their versions beyond a few stores.
Sainsbury’s removed Just Walk Out tech from its Holborn store in February this year, having customers instead pay at a kiosk with a till or a self-checkout.
Tesco opened its first GetGo store, also in Holborn, in 2021, and now has three in London and one in Birmingham. Customers can use the GetGo app to ‘bag as you shop’ or pay at a self-checkout.
Aldi opened its check-out-free Shop & Go store in Greenwich, London, in 2022, and in August this year added self-checkouts.
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