Retail giant scraps all fresh shops in UK, shifting focus to online grocery delivery

Amazon is pulling the plug on its Fresh supermarkets in the United Kingdom, closing every single one as it pivots back to an online-first grocery strategy.

The US tech giant confirmed that all 14 Amazon Fresh stores in the UK will shut down, ending its four-year experiment with physical supermarkets in Britain. The remaining five locations will be rebranded and absorbed into Amazon’s Whole Foods Market chain, which it has owned since 2017.

The decision represents a dramatic retreat for Amazon, which had once trumpeted Fresh as a futuristic reimagining of the weekly shop. Customers in London and surrounding areas were introduced to stores showcasing the company’s “Just Walk Out” technology — a cashless system where people could pick items off shelves and leave, with cameras, sensors and staff monitoring feeds to automatically charge their accounts.

When the system launched in 2021, it was hailed as revolutionary. But it quickly drew criticism over privacy concerns, questions about accuracy, and the hidden costs of staffing rooms full of human observers to oversee purchases. The model proved difficult to scale. By 2023, Amazon was already shutting some Fresh stores in both the UK and US, while simultaneously scaling back its Go convenience outlets. In 2024, it abandoned Just Walk Out entirely in US Fresh locations.

Now, the UK experiment has come to an abrupt end.

In a statement, Amazon said it would focus on building its online grocery service rather than pursuing more bricks-and-mortar stores. The company plans to expand its Same-Day Delivery programme in Britain, adding fresh and perishable groceries in 2026. The service, already rolled out in the US last month, promises to bring chilled and frozen goods directly to customers’ doors.

Industry analysts say the closure signals Amazon’s struggle to crack the fiercely competitive British grocery market, long dominated by giants such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Aldi. Physical supermarkets in the UK operate on wafer-thin profit margins, and attempts to disrupt them have often ended in failure.

Retail consultant Catherine Shuttleworth noted: “The UK grocery sector is one of the most unforgiving retail landscapes in the world. If you can’t combine sharp pricing with absolute convenience, customers won’t stick around. Even Amazon, with its tech edge and deep pockets, has found that out the hard way.”

For shoppers, the closures mean fewer futuristic stores but potentially faster, broader delivery options. Amazon insists that its online model will offer greater value, convenience, and reach. However, critics argue that walking away from physical stores undermines the company’s long-stated ambition to dominate all aspects of retail.

The fate of the staff working in the 14 Fresh stores remains unclear. Amazon has not yet provided details on whether employees will be offered redeployment within the company or face redundancy.

Despite the retreat, Amazon continues to experiment with grocery strategies in other regions. Whole Foods remains its flagship physical supermarket brand in the US and UK. In addition, the company is testing different store formats, fulfilment centres, and expanded delivery services to strengthen its foothold in the food sector.

But for now, the futuristic Amazon Fresh brand in Britain is over. Once billed as a bold reinvention of the supermarket, it now joins a long list of tech experiments that failed to live up to their disruptive promise.

As one retail analyst put it: “Amazon came in thinking it could change how Britain shops. Instead, Britain has shown Amazon that some traditions — like pushing a trolley down a supermarket aisle — are harder to kill than expected.