Amazon reportedly closing brick-and-mortar same-day delivery program
Media reports indicate Amazon is ending a same-day delivery solution which fulfilled orders from brick-and-mortar retail partners.
According to CNBC, Amazon 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.
Sources told CNBC 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 approximately 300 Amazon Today employees were reportedly informed of the impending closure on Monday, Oct. 21. A "small amount" of employees are said to be facing layoff with severance payments, while others will be offered other jobs within the company.
Chain Store Age has reached out to Amazon for comment. Read more CNBC coverage here.
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.
