Amazon has halted the rollout of its Amazon Fresh grocery stores as the company figures out how to better differentiate them and improve their economics, CEO Andy Jassy said during the e-commerce company’s fourth quarter earnings call Thursday.
Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said during the call that Amazon recorded a $720 million impairment charge in Q4, with Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go accounting for the bulk of that amount. He said Amazon decided to close some stores with low growth potential, but did not say how many will shutter under the banners.
Jassy stressed the importance of grocery to Amazon’s business and noted that stores like Amazon Fresh are key to getting perishable goods into shoppers’ carts.
Source: Grocery Dive