Amazon Fresh’s Two Stores In Naperville To Close As Company Shuts Down Amazon Grocery Stores Nationally

All Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go locations are closing, including the two located in Naperville, Amazon announced Tuesday.

There are 57 Fresh and 15 Go stores across the country, with 13 in Illinois. In addition to the Naperville locations at 3116 Route 59 and 1351 E. Ogden Ave., there are stores in Arlington Heights, Schaumburg, North Riverside, Oak Lawn, Tinley Park, Morton Grove, Bloomingdale, Norridge and Chicago.

The last day the stores will be open is Sunday, Feb. 1.

While some locations may be converted into Whole Foods stores, another chain owned by Amazon, the company released no information on where that might happen. Naperville has a Whole Foods at 2607 W. 75th St.

Naperville residents Sarah and Robert Maxwell use a Dash Cart as they shop at the Amazon Fresh grocery store in Naperville on Dec. 10, 2020, the first to open in Illinois. The high-tech Dash Carts automatically ring up items up as they're selected so shoppers can skip the checkout line. (Chicago Tribune)

Naperville Mayor Scott Wehrli acknowledged the closures in a statement Tuesday, saying he did not believe it would affect the city’s reputation as a “highly desirable place to do business.”

“Naperville’s vibrancy is driven by residents who care about quality, variety and supporting the businesses that serve our community well — and we’re also a grocery destination for shoppers well beyond our city limits,” Wehrli said. “That’s why we continue to attract great new businesses, even as Amazon announced today it will close its Fresh grocery stores.”

The city has “consistently led the Chicago suburbs in grocery sales, and we’ve welcomed at least one new grocer to our market within the last year — with another on the way,” Wehrli said. “We’re a community that supports great options and that’s why great options keep coming.”

One new grocery store coming this fall is MOM’s Organic Market, a Mid-Atlantic regional chain that is opening its first Illinois location in Naperville at 1163 E. Ogden Ave. Scott Nash, its founder and CEO, describes his company as a “cross between Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods” and with just 27 locations, they’re selective as to where they choose to go, he said.

Also coming this year will be the first Illinois location for national supermarket chain 99 Ranch Market, which plans to open an Asian-focused grocery store in the shopping center at at North Aurora Road and Raymond Drive. The California-based company is owned by Taiwanese immigrant Roger Chen, who told one newspaper that he wanted to create a business that offered foods from his home country as well as foods available to him at typical American supermarket chains.

Opening in 2025 was Heinen’s, an upscale grocery chain based in Ohio that spent millions revamping a Naperville shopping center at 1244 E. Chicago Ave. for its fifth Illinois location. It opened in September 2025 with a host of special features, including a specialty cheese shop, an in-house butcher and a taqueria selling made-to-order tacos, burritos, quesadillas and bowls.

When Amazon opened its first Illinois Fresh store in Naperville in December 2020, it caused a stir — it was the first time the company had branched outside of California with its new grocery concept. The 35,000-square-foot store offered checkout-free Dash Carts and voice-enabled Alexa terminals.

Dash Cart cameras, sensors and scales could detect what customers had placed inside so purchases could be tallied and billed without the need to go through a checkout line. The idea was to focus on convenience and low prices and they offered national and local brands as well as the Whole Foods Market 365 organics line and Amazon-exclusive products.

At the time, it was Amazon’s biggest foray into physical retail since it bought Whole Foods in 2017.

The second Naperville location on Ogden Avenue opened in March 2022 and introduced its checkout-free Just Walk Out concept. By scanning a QR code on the Amazon smartphone app when entering and leaving the store, the customer could literally pick up items and leave without going through a checkout line.

In announcing the store closures, Amazon said it planned to switch its focus to focuses on its grocery delivery, Whole Foods Market and a new “supersized” store concept.

“While we’ve seen encouraging signals in our Amazon-branded physical grocery stores, we haven’t yet created a truly distinctive customer experience with the right economic model needed for large-scale expansion,” the company said in a blog post where tha announcement was made.

Since Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods Market in 2017, it’s seen more than 40% sales growth and expansion to more than 550 locations, the company said. It now plans to open more than 100 new Whole Foods Market stores over the next few years.

At the same time, shoppers are turning to online delivery for everyday essentials and fresh food, Amazon said. The online retailer is now delivering groceries to 5,000 U.S. cities and towns, including thousands served by same-day delivery where customers can shop produce and other perishables along with staples.

Based on strong customer feedback, it said it plans to expand its same-day delivery service of fresh groceries to more areas this year.

The company also revealed on Tuesday that it plans to open a “new supercenter” physical retail concept designed for customers to shop Amazon’s broad selection across fresh groceries, household essentials, and general merchandise. The company didn’t provide any other details including the timing of the opening.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.