Amazon Fresh grocery store closures include 10 in the suburbs

Amazon on Tuesday announced plans to shutter its brick-and-mortar Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go stores, including 10 locations in the suburbs.

Amazon Fresh grocery stores are in Arlington Heights, Bloomingdale, Morton Grove, Naperville, Norridge, North Riverside, Oak Lawn, Schaumburg and Tinley Park. Three Amazon Go convenience stores operate in downtown Chicago.

“While we’ve seen encouraging signals in our Amazon-branded physical grocery stores, we haven’t yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion,” the company announced in a blog post Tuesday morning.

The last day is set for Sunday, except in California, where state notification requirements will allow the stores to remain open longer, a spokesperson said.

The Seattle-based e-commerce giant operates 57 Amazon Fresh stores and 15 Amazon Go stores across the country.

Some of the locations will be converted into Whole Foods Market stores, according to the blog, though the company didn’t say which ones. Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017, and now operates more than 550 locations, with plans to open another 100 stores over the next few years, officials said.

The company blog post said it would also “double down” on its grocery delivery business, while noting future plans for a supercenter physical retail concept.

Amazon opened its first company-branded store in the Chicago market in late 2020 in Naperville — which now has two locations — but it was a slow rollout with starts and stops across the suburbs as the online retailer tried to find its place in the competitive grocery market locally and nationally.

Exterior signage for the Amazon Fresh at 325 E. Palatine Road in Arlington Heights went up in June 2022, but those signs were taken down by the spring of 2023 amid the corporation’s nationwide pause on new grocery store openings.

The 50,000-square-foot big box finally opened in July 2024.

Emily Rodman, Arlington Heights’ director of planning and community development, said Tuesday no one at village hall received notification from Amazon or Town & Country Shopping Center owner Visconsi Cos. about the planned closure.

It’s unknown if the store might be converted to a Whole Foods, she said.

Coincidentally, village officials had scheduled a meeting with Amazon about making changes to the back of the store to improve its grocery delivery service. That meeting is still on for Wednesday, Rodman said.

“They were looking to make some modifications to what they were doing there. We’ve been going back and forth with them,” Rodman said.

Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli said he doesn’t yet know what will become of the stores at 1351 E. Ogden Ave. and 3116 S. Route 59, and whether either could transition to Whole Foods.

“I’m confident in what we do know: Naperville remains a highly desirable place to do business. We’re a community that supports great options and that’s why great options keep coming,” said Wehrli, noting that a Heinen’s grocery store opened in town this past fall and the Asian-focused grocer 99 Ranch Market is still to come.

In Buffalo Grove, the much-anticipated Amazon Fresh store within The Clove redevelopment remains in limbo.

The identity of the store was revealed in May when permits were pulled and construction began. The interior of the 43,000-square-foot building was already 75% built out by the fall, according to Deputy Village Manager Christopher Stilling.

But on Tuesday Stilling said Amazon hadn’t provided any updates on the nationwide closures or its plans for the property near Lake-Cook and McHenry roads.

Under a 2022 redevelopment agreement with the village, Kensington Development Partners is eligible for up to $22.75 million in incentives for its $150 million makeover of the former Town Center shopping center, which includes restaurants, retail and apartments.

Stilling said the developer won’t get additional tax increment financing funds until a grocer opens on the property, per the agreement.

“We are working closely with the developer and remain very optimistic regarding a future tenant,” he said.

· Daily Herald staff writers Katlyn Smith and Steve Zalusky contributed to this report.