Amazon closing brick-and-mortar same-day delivery program
Amazon is ending a same-day delivery solution which fulfilled orders from brick-and-mortar retail partners.
In an email to Chain Store Age, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed that the e-tail giant is stopping development of Amazon Today, a service which showcases inventory from partner retailers on the Amazon site and then process orders for fulfillment from local stores or mall locations. The spokesperson cited increasing overlap between Amazon's same-day and one-day delivery offerings and Amazon Today.
“After careful consideration, we’ve made the decision to sunset Amazon Today," the spokesperson said. "This will streamline our offerings for customers, and the majority of selection our customers buy from Amazon Today will continue to be available for same- and one-day delivery. In the U.S., Amazon offers same-day delivery in more than 120 metro areas, and Prime members can shop tens of millions of the most popular items, across 35 product categories, with same-day and one-day delivery."
Amazon will mostly shut down Amazon Today, which was launched in 2022, by Dec. 2, 2024, with some participating retailers being allowed to continue using the service until Jan. 24, 2025. The e-tailer told Chain Store Age that most of the roughly 175 impacted employees will be transitioned to other positions within Amazon, with the "small amount" who are not to receive a "highly competitive" exit package that will include severance, transitional health benefits, and job placement support.
Amazon ramps up layoffs
Amazon has been intensifying efforts to trim headcount during the past two years as the e-tail giant faces a softening consumer marketplace. This includes November 2023 reductions in its Alexa workforce, as well as an April 2023 decision to eliminate positions in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud computing unit in the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica.
[READ MORE: Amazon lays off workers from Prime Video, MGM Studios, Twitch]
And in a March 2023 memo to employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company intends to eliminate about 9,000 workers. In the memo, Jassy explained that after hiring more than 450,000 people in the U.S. between the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 and September 2021, the company needs to reassess its staffing levels.
At the beginning of 2023, Amazon said it planned to eliminate just over 18,000 roles in 2023, with the majority of cuts in its Amazon Stores and PXT organizations. In November 2022, Amazon publicly announced it had decided to “consolidate” some teams and programs in the devices and services organization (responsible for product lines such as Amazon Echo and Kindle devices).
The company also announced a voluntary reduction offer for some employees in its PXT organization. Other areas of its business where Amazon has reduced headcount include the Whole Foods Market specialty grocery chain.
