Amazon to Close All Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go, Long Beach Included

Amazon has announced it will shut down all physical Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores across the United States, a move that includes the Amazon Fresh location in Long Beach.

The decision affects every standalone Amazon Fresh grocery store and Amazon Go convenience store nationwide. According to Amazon, the company was unable to scale these in-person retail formats in a way that made long-term business sense.

Instead, Amazon says it will focus on expanding online grocery delivery and investing further in Whole Foods Market, which it acquired in 2017. Amazon Fresh will continue to operate as an online grocery delivery service, but not as a physical storefront.

Most stores outside California are expected to close quickly. California locations, including the Long Beach store on Spring Street, may remain open slightly longer due to state labor laws that require advance notice before grocery store closures.

Amazon has stated that employees impacted by the closures will be offered opportunities to transfer to other roles within the company or receive severance packages. The company has not announced what will happen to individual store locations once they close, though some former Amazon Fresh or Amazon Go spaces could potentially be converted into Whole Foods stores in the future.

For Long Beach shoppers, the closure marks the end of Amazon’s brief experiment with physical grocery retail in the city, while signaling a broader pullback from brick-and-mortar stores nationwide.