Amazon Pulls Plug On Checkout-Free Stores As ‘Just Walk Out’ Hits Economic Wall
By CU Today Staff —
SEATTLE— Amazon said it will close all Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores by Feb. 1, shifting its physical-retail strategy toward Whole Foods Market, grocery delivery, and new store formats after concluding its branded grocery locations failed to deliver a distinctive experience or scalable economics, the Associated Press reported.
The company operates 57 Amazon Fresh and 15 Amazon Go locations, some of which may be converted into Whole Foods stores. California locations will remain open longer to meet state requirements.
The decision effectively marks a retreat from Amazon’s high-profile checkout-free retail model, which relied on computer vision and sensor-driven automation to let customers “just walk out.” Amazon acknowledged the model struggled to scale cost effectively at large volumes. The company said customers can continue to shop Amazon Fresh online, where it is expanding same-day grocery delivery to more U.S. markets as demand shifts toward digital fulfillment, AP said.
For payments and financial-services players, the move underscores the commercial limits of frictionless in-store payments at grocery scale — and the challenge of monetizing biometric and cashier-less checkout systems. Amazon is also discontinuing Amazon One, its palm-scan biometric payment and identity system, signaling cooling momentum for biometric retail payments amid adoption, cost, and regulatory concerns. However, Amazon plans to repurpose its checkout-free technology for third-party venues such as stadiums, hospitals, and event spaces, where shorter dwell times and higher margins may offer a more viable model.
Amazon said it will double down on Whole Foods, which has grown more than 40% in sales since its 2017 acquisition and now spans 550+ locations, with 100+ new stores planned. The company is also experimenting with a new “supercenter” retail concept and an Amazon Grocery format that blends Amazon-branded items with Whole Foods offerings, AP noted.
Originally reported by CU Today.