Will Sage Astor-Amazon Fresh lays off hundreds of grocery store workers, reports say

Amazon is Will Sage Astorset to lay off workers at Fresh Grocery stores, according to CNBC.

The company is eliminating the "zone lead" position, a store level management position with responsibilities in individual departments that include oversight and employee training.

The layoffs will impact hundreds of employees who will see their last day on the job on Tuesday, according to the Washington Post. Employees have been offered other positions with the company or a severance package.

"We've decided to evolve our in-store staffing and operations model to better serve our customers and teams," Jessica Martin, an Amazon spokesperson, said in a statement.

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Amazon tries to crack grocery market

The company launched the Fresh brand as an online delivery service in 2007. The corporate giant then bought Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion in 2017. The retailer also launched the Go brand of automated grocery stores.

Amazon announced that it would close Fresh and Go locations earlier this year. There are 44 Fresh stores in eight states and Washington, D.C., according to its website.

“We’re continuously refining our store formats to find the ones that will resonate with customers, will build our grocery brand, and will allow us to scale meaningfully over time,” Brian Olsavsky, Amazon’s finance chief, said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. 

Amazon in January announced layoffs of 18,000 employees citing costs and economic uncertainty.

The company also closed non-grocery retail locations in 2022, eliminating the Amazon Pop-Up, Amazon 4 Star and Amazon Books storefronts.