On Monday, Amazon Chief Merchant John Farrell announced in a LinkedIn post that he was leaving the company to “explore new challenges.” Farrell oversees purchasing for the fresh department and joined Amazon in 2019 from British supermarket chain Tesco.
Amazon is restructuring its grocery business as it continues its nearly two-decade effort to become a giant in the U.S. grocery market.
In recent years, Amazon has expanded its selection of fresh produce and household goods at same-day warehouses in the U.S., as well as testing 30-minute delivery of groceries and other items in some regions.
The company announced Tuesday that it plans to open more than 100 new Whole Foods stores over the next few years, expand its Whole Foods Mini Market lineup and test new formats, including a superstore in suburban Chicago.
Last January, Amazon named Mr. Buckel to oversee its vast grocery business. He has taken steps to bring Whole Foods, which Amazon acquired for $13.7 billion in 2017, closer to its in-house grocery team. Buchel named the initiative “One Grocery.”
Mr. Jassy told investors in May that he remained “very bullish” on Amazon’s grocery business. The company says it is “one of the top three grocery stores in the U.S.” with total sales of more than $150 billion and more than 150 million customers purchasing groceries each year.
“This is a very important business, but I think there are a lot of other areas where we can grow in this area,” Jassy said.
Buchel said that as part of the store closures, the company is laying off some employees across the grocery organization and working to find jobs elsewhere at Amazon. He did not say how many jobs were affected by the restructuring.
“Thank you to all the team members who helped us develop, build, and operate Fresh and Go stores,” Bushell wrote.
Hello, team.
Our worldwide grocery store organization performed well in 2025, making it easier, faster and more affordable for customers to buy groceries. Looking ahead to 2026, we have ambitious plans to build on this momentum and further expand access to fresh food and everyday essentials to millions more customers.
Achieving these plans requires making careful choices about where to invest and how to operate. Today we’re sharing some important changes to our business and team structure. These decisions weren’t easy, but they will enable us to offer even more to our customers in the years to come.
Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical store closures
First, after carefully evaluating our business and how to best serve our customers, we made the difficult decision to close our Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores. This decision means the role must be discontinued across the organization and affected employees have been notified. While we have seen encouraging signals with these formats, they have yet to create a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed to scale at scale. Importantly, the Amazon Fresh brand continues online, where customers can shop with fast and convenient delivery.
It’s never easy when decisions impact the talented people who have contributed so much to our customers and our mission. We are helping affected employees find work elsewhere at Amazon and supporting them with 90 days of full pay and benefits, career transition services, and severance packages.
To all the team members who helped us develop, build, and operate Fresh and Go stores: Thank you. You showed up every day ready to pioneer something new and, most importantly, make a difference for our customers and each other. While these stores will close, your efforts will shape our next generation of store concepts and customer experiences.
Evolution of the Amazon Grocery Logistics (AGL) Organization
Next, as part of One Grocery’s efforts to align operations across Amazon to better serve its customers, it will transition its online grocery fulfillment operations, returns logistics, and AGL corporate operations teams to Udit Madan’s worldwide operations organization. The company also coordinates Whole Foods Market’s in-store pickup and return counter operations with store operations under Bill Jordan. Vishy and Bill will share more about these changes later today.
This strategic decision reflects both the maturation of our grocery logistics capabilities and the significant growth opportunities ahead. We began building our Chill Chain network in 2007 with the first Amazon Fresh delivery service, and our team has developed into a world-class operation delivering affordable, high-quality groceries to multiple countries. Managing large-scale fresh produce supply chains is complex, and I’m proud of the expertise and innovation of our talented team.
Now is the time to extend this expertise within our worldwide operations as we accelerate our fresh food expansion through our core fulfillment and distribution network. Last year, we launched fresh produce as part of our same-day delivery service in more than 2,300 cities and towns, and fresh produce quickly became nine of the top 10 best-selling items. This move will combine our chill chain expertise with Sub Same Day’s extensive fulfillment network, advanced automation capabilities, and operational scale to capture this huge opportunity. This is how we think at One Grocery at scale. Our teams will continue to work closely together, just as we do today with Worldwide Operations.
We would like to thank Mr. Vichy for his leadership in building a robust grocery logistics capability that positions our company for the next stage of growth. We will share updates regarding his next role in the coming weeks.
What this means for grocery stores around the world
You may be wondering, what does this mean for our organization? We are the stewards of groceries across Amazon, and that responsibility has never been more important. We are responsible for maintaining the highest standards of selection, freshness and quality throughout our supply chain, from partnering with farms and suppliers to stocking our shelves and delivering to our customers’ doorsteps.
We continue to work with teams across Amazon to set standards, from fulfillment to technology to product to Prime. Ultimately, it’s our job to ensure that customers can trust Amazon to provide them with fresh, high-quality food at affordable prices.
To support this effort, we are adding a new role to the WWGS leadership team focused on food quality. This role will be the single-thread lead for all aspects of quality across the customer experience, including product and order quality, and will be announced in the coming weeks.
When we work together across Amazon, our collective impact is significant.
• Same-day delivery of fresh groceries is currently available in more than 2,300 cities and towns, with plans to expand to more locations in 2026.
• Over the next few years, we plan to open more than 100 new Whole Foods Market stores, including daily shop formats.
• Amazon Grocery, our new unified private brand, currently offers over 1,000 items at special prices and is preparing for further expansion in 2026.
• We continue to invest in new brick-and-mortar experiences, including Amazon Grocery, which we launched with Whole Foods Market in Chicago, Illinois, and “stores within stores” at Whole Foods Market in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, and we expect to open new brick-and-mortar formats in the coming years. As an example, the team is working on a new retail concept in Orland Park, Illinois, designed to allow customers to conveniently shop Amazon’s wide selection and low prices across fresh produce, household goods and general merchandise.
Looking to the future
We know that change is difficult. Especially when it impacts your teammates and when you say goodbye to the stores and programs this team has helped build. This is the last thing I would like to say. I am deeply optimistic about the future of our grocery business and our opportunities to positively impact our customers, suppliers and communities. The future is bright and we’ll continue to find new and better ways to serve our customers, whether it’s faster delivery options, new brick-and-mortar formats, or innovations we haven’t yet imagined.
The entire WWGS leadership team is here to support you during this transition period. If you have any questions, please contact your leader or PXT/TMS partner.
Thank you for all you do and for the resilience and dedication you bring to this job every day.
jason
