Amazon Scaling Back AmazonFresh in Several States

Some Amazon customers have received email notices from the company stating that the AmazonFresh is being discontinued at on November 30 in their neighborhood.

According to Recode, AmazonFresh customers in parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and California report receiving the discontinuation notice from Amazon.

Apparently the email was also sent to some customers in larger metro areas like Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Whole Foods Market the Culprit?

The first thought that comes to mind is that Amazon is reorganizing its grocery and food delivery strategy. The company even mentioned in their last earnings conference call there would be more future cooperation between Amazon.com, Whole Foods Market, and AmazonFresh.

However, a company spokeswoman stated to Reuters that the AmazonFresh closures were unrelated to the Whole Foods deal.

I live within 2 miles of a Whole Foods Store in Florida, and I still receive promotional messages (see below) to join AmazonFresh.

So, is the delivery business in those neighborhoods not worth it? A little bit of confusing messaging from Amazon.

If this is a rebrand, they could easily just switch branding from one property to another without creating “negative” press about suspending services.

Historically, AmazonFresh never really gained much traction. It was started about ten years ago in Seattle, and the company has tweaked the concept many times. There are even a couple test stores now that just offer pick up.

Therefore closing the entity completely and rolling it into Whole Foods Market would make sense, but apparently that is not what they are doing.

We also just reported that Amazon is trying to entice third-party marketplace grocery products sellers to list more items on their platform. Is this coincidence or are both bits of news part of a larger strategy?

Let’s see where this goes. Right now, this is just an interesting news item. And with Amazon, any change makes the news.

What do you think Amazon is up to with shutting down some neighborhoods for AmazonFresh deliveries? Drop us a line in the comments section below.

Richard Meldner

Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.

To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.