SEATTLE, WA - As it continues to find its footing in the physical grocery space, Amazon is re-strategizing. After announcing that it will be shuttering the last of its two Fresh Pickup facilities, we wonder if the retailer is learning from this experiment and applying its findings to its other brick-and-mortar formats.

Amazon launched Fresh Pickup back in 2017, opening two facilities in Seattle, Washington, where customers could place a grocery order online, schedule a time to pick up their items, and then wait in their car while workers deposited the delivery.

As Seattle Times reported, it seemed a foreshadowing of the contactless shopping that so many people sought out during the pandemic. However, both of these facilities have now closed, with one shuttering in December and the second closing just this month.

When the retailer was asked for comment, Amazon’s Public Relations Manager Jessica Martin noted, “Like any retailer, we periodically assess our portfolio and make optimization decisions around how we operate.”

This isn’t to say that Amazon has completely backed out of innovating in the grocery game. The company still operates over 40 Fresh grocery stores across the country and runs Go convenience stores in major cities like New York and Los Angeles.

We’ll continue to report on the latest in retail, so stick with ANUK!