Amazon announced on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, the closure of all Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go physical stores nationwide, with plans of converting various locations to Whole Foods Market stores. In their blog article, Amazon did not specify when Amazon Fresh stores would be closing, or what Amazon Fresh stores would be converted to Whole Foods stores. An additional statement by Amazon on Tuesday, January 27, 2026 indicated the Amazon Fresh stores would be closing February 1, 2026, with the exception of its California locations, which will remain open longer to comply with state labor requirements.
The Amazon Fresh brand availability will continue as customers can continue to shop Amazon Fresh online in available areas for fast and convenient delivery.
The Grand Opening for the Arlington Heights Amazon Fresh location was July 25, 2024.
The Amazon Fresh store was also closed Tuesday, January 27, 2026 with a sign at the door indicating the store would be open Wednesday, January 28, 2026 at 8:00 a.m.
Inventory at the Arlington Heights Amazon Fresh store had been unusual the last week with large areas in the meat section empty.
The next step is waiting to find out whether the Amazon Fresh store will be converted to a Whole Foods store. There are several outsider observations that might offer hope for a Whole Foods to occupy a former Amazon Fresh store in Arlington Heights.
The Arlington Heights store is over 40,000 square feet, and there is a long thin unused space between Amazon Fresh and Walgreens that is 4,346 square feet. The area was once offered as a sublease on the west side of the Amazon Fresh store in Arlington Heights. The Schaumburg Whole Foods is about 50,0000 square feet.
For the past several months, employees at the Amazon Fresh store in Arlington Heights have indicated that the store in Arlington Heights was one of the most successful Amazon Fresh stores. One month last summer an employee indicated the store was the most successful among all Amazon Fresh stores. At the end of the Amazon Fresh physical store “experiment” Amazon was operating 57 Amazon Fresh stores and 15 Amazon Go stores.
According to a Business Insider article in February 2023, the average income of a Whole Foods customer was $80,000. According to Visconsi Companies, the property management company where Amazon Fresh Arlington Heights is located, the average household income in a one mile radius is $129,044, and in a three mile radius is $110,459, and in a five mile radius is $106,363.
The population within a one mile radius of Amazon Fresh Arlington Heights is 13,129, within a three mile radius is 134,289, and within a five mile radius is 330,411.
A Whole Foods at the Amazon Fresh location in Arlington Heights would be about half way between the Deerfield Whole Foods and the Schaumburg Whole Foods, and about half way between the Northbrook Whole Foods and the Schaumburg Whole Foods. Most Whole Foods stores in northeast Illinois are concentrated along a line several miles within the Lake Michigan shore. There are 531 Whole Foods stores in the United States in early 2026, according to the Whole Foods website.
Amazon announced that the company is increasing investment in their physical stores that are resonating with customers. Whole Foods Market, a pioneer and leader in natural and organic foods, has seen strong success since the 2017 acquisition by Amazon, with over 40% sales growth and expansion to more than 550 locations. Customers are increasingly choosing Whole Foods Market for both everyday shopping and special occasions, as demonstrated by record-breaking customer traffic and year-over-year comparable store growth that is outpacing the broader industry. Amazon is now planning to accelerate Whole Foods Market growth by investing in opening more than 100 new Whole Foods Market stores over the next few years.
Why did Amazon Fresh fail? The technology was fantastic with the ability to quickly find items in the store with the high-tech product-scanning and product-weighing Dash Cart; and convenience of avoiding lines. Employees were very helpful. However, too many people had difficulty understanding and getting up to speed with the new technology. Some people didn’t like the sterile appearance. Some people didn’t like the lack of a butcher’s counter. Initially, the store had a reputation for high prices; but that changed after a few months. For example, a large peanut butter jar from Amazon was less expensive than a Jif peanut butter jar half the size. There were sales periods with a dozen eggs at 69 cents. Bananas were 0.49 a pound. There were great deals on Granny Smith apples, blueberries, and packages salads.
Illinois Stores Closing …
Arlington Heights
325 E Palatine Road
Arlington Heights, IL 60004
Bloomingdale
404 W Army Trail Rd
Bloomingdale, IL 60108
Morton Grove
6939 Dempster St
Morton Grove, IL 60053
Naperville
3116 S Rt 59
Naperville, IL 60564
Naperville – Ogden
1351 E Ogden Ave
Naperville, IL 60563
Norridge
4211 N. Harlem Ave
Norridge, IL 60706
North Riverside
7201 West 24th St
North Riverside, IL 60546
Oak Lawn
4031 W 95th St
Oak Lawn, IL 60453
Schaumburg
16 A East Golf Rd
Schaumburg, IL 60173
Tinley Park
16017 S. Harlem Ave
Tinley Park, IL 60477
DASH CART …
According to Amazon, the new version of the Amazon Fresh Dash Cart features …
a real-time receipt on the electronic cart display,
appearance on the display of fresh items (such as produce) that are near the cart when approached,
the ability to input a search by product name instead of by PLU code (e.g, Gala apple instead of 4132, 4133,4134 or 4135),
the ability to weigh produce directly in the cart without stopping the cart,
a lighter weight shopping cart to push around,
increased shopping cart capacity (four-bag limit instead of two),
a new ‘delicates’ shelf, and
a new ‘lower shelf’ for over-size items.
Back-end improvements included a smart cart that is more precisely located in the store by the Amazon store’s information system, which improves the display of nearby products and deals for the customer. The cart also has an improved extended all-day battery life, and was tested for durability in extreme cold and extreme heat.
Recently stores in Schaumburg and Oak Lawn, Illinois; Amazon added hundreds of additional national and private label brands, including baking products, dairy, home care, health, and snacks categories.
In Summer 2023, the Schaumburg and Oak Lawn Amazon Fresh locations were also upgraded to the new version of the Dash Cart.
Some other stores also needed to remove the Just Walk Out feature, replacing the Just Walk Out feature with the Dash Cart. At the Amazon Fresh store in North Riverside, the Just Walk Out feature is being removed or has been removed in 2024 with removal of ceiling cameras that are used to operate the Just Walk Out feature (CARDINAL NEWS couldn’t reach the North Riverside store by telephone to find out if the store changed over).
FLASHBACK TO NORTH-RIVERSIDE 2022 … According to a Riverside-Brookfield Landmark article by Bob Uphues the North Riverside Amazon Fresh store would open on June 9, 2022 without any special carts. North Riverside Village Administrator Sue Scarpiniti told Uphues, “This store will have their newest technology. There won’t be any special carts. When you walk in, you scan a QR code (on your phone) and get a basket. As you take items off the shelf they’re registered onto your phone and when you exit, you automatically check out.”
In 2021, Amazon described the ‘Just Walk Out’ technology as a feature that uses computer vision, sensor fusion, and deep learning to give customers the option to shop, and then skip the checkout line when shopping is complete.
For the Just Walk Out feature to function, multiple cameras were installed near the ceiling on both sides of the shopping aisles to monitor the products that are placed in a traditional shopping cart. A source told CARDINAL NEWS that the Just Walk Out technology was not working as well as expected. There were security issues and loss control issues with the ceiling cameras. Apparently as part of Amazon’s innovation process, the company discovered that the ceiling cameras and other Just Walk Out technology didn’t work out as well as the capabilities of the Dash Cart.
Regarding global Amazon Fresh development, Amazon also recently announced expansion of Amazon Fresh grocery delivery, and free pickup to customers without a Prime membership in the United States. Amazon also announced redesigned multiple Amazon Fresh stores in the United Kingdom and the United States. Several new Whole Foods Market stores have also opened in the United States, and on Monday Whole Foods Market (owned by Amazon) announced the planned opening of a smaller 4,000 to 7,000 square foot store format, known as a Whole Foods Market Daily Shop.
Amazon also expanded third-party grocery delivery with additional Weis Markets supermarkets in the U.S. and ARCS Supermarket in Japan.
Schaumburg Store
In 2023, CEO Andy Jassy wrote that Amazon aspires “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 explained that grocery is an $800B market segment in the US alone, and that Amazon “has built a somewhat unusual, but significant grocery business over nearly 20 years.”
According to Jassy, Amazon offers more than three million items compared to a typical supermarket, which offers 30K items for the same categories, such as paper products, canned and boxed food, candy and snacks, pet care, health and personal care, and beauty.
Articles in Forbes, diginomica and Financial Times indicated in February 2023 that Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had confidence that Amazon has a very significant opportunity in the grocery segment, but that Amazon is “experimenting with these stores to find a format that is differentiated from competitors and resonates with shoppers.”
In a Financial Times article written by Dave Lee Amazon chief vows to ‘go big’ on physical stores, the article content offers a brighter outlook (regarding 2023 intentions) for Amazon Fresh stores.
The February 2023 news among various business news sources offers optimism that wasn’t expressed in Company News from Amazon in November 2022 that reported that there will be reductions impacting employee roles in Stores and the PXT (People, Experience, and Technology) organization.
Google Listing for Amazon Fresh Arlington Heights Store Removed
A status change was recognized Thursday, February 16, 2023 for the Google listing for the Amazon Fresh Arlington Heights store (Google search) recently developed over the past two years. The store that has not yet opened, and is apparently one of the stores that was paused by Amazon, showed a Google search result listing status as “Permanently Closed” early Thursday, February 16, 2023. After an inquiry by CARDINAL NEWS to Amazon and the Town & Country Center management, the store status changed to “Temporarily Closed” Thursday evening, February 16, 2023. Then Friday, February 17, 2023, the Google search result for Amazon Fresh Arlington Heights did not include a listing for the Arlington Heights store at 345 East Palatine Road at all — for a period Friday there was no listing. Then, later Friday, the Google search result instead referred to the Amazon Fresh Schaumburg store listing at Golf Road and Roselle Road in Schaumburg.
GOOGLE SCREEN SHOTS 2023
Amazon Fresh “Temporarily Closed”
late evening Thursday, February 16, 2023
(SOURCE: Google) …
RELATED NEWS …
Forbes | Amazon Is Closing Some Amazon Fresh And Amazon Go Stores – Are Groceries Profitable?
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