On Thursday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy wrote a letter to Amazon’s shareholders discussing various aspects of the company including the direction it will take its grocery business.
“While we’re pleased with the size and growth of our grocery business, we aspire to serve more of our customers’ grocery needs than we do today. To do so, we need a broader physical store footprint given that most of the grocery shopping still happens in physical venues,” Jassy wrote.
In early 2023, Amazon shut down select Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores to rethink its grocery strategy. In the letter, Jassy noted that the brand is working “to identify and build the right mass grocery format for Amazon scale” for its Amazon Fresh business, signaling more restructuring to come for its brick-and-mortar locations.
For Whole Foods, owned by Amazon, Jassy revealed that the parent continues to invest in the business and make changes to drive profitability; however, it is not the right fit for larger-scale impact.
“Whole Foods is on an encouraging path, but to have a larger impact on physical grocery, we must find a mass grocery format that we believe is worth expanding broadly.”
Related: Amazon Plans to Shut Select Fresh, Go Stores; Martie Expands Discount Online Grocery