Whole Foods Store Closings 2022: Is Your Location Being Shut Down?

Amazon (AMZN) will close six Whole Foods locations in the U.S. after evaluation of the stores’ “performance and growth potential.”

The stores hit by the closure include locations in Montgomery, Alabama; Mobile, Alabama; Brookline, Massachusetts; Tarzana, California; and two additional stores located in Chicago, Bloomberg reported.

The Chicago stores are situated in the Englewood and DePaul neighborhoods. Five of the stores will close on May 6.

A spokesperson for Whole Foods told Bloomberg, “As we continue to position Whole Foods Market for long-term success, we regularly evaluate the performance and growth potential of each of our stores, and we have made the difficult decision to close six stores.”

Whole Foods has about 500 stores globally and was acquired by Amazon in 2017 for $13.7 billion.

Whole Foods makes up about 2.4% of the U.S. grocery market.

These are not the first store closures for Amazon in recent months. In March, the retail giant said it was shuttering 68 brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. and the U.K. under the Amazon Books, Amazon 4-Star, and Amazon Pop Up store names. At the time, Amazon told Business Insider the decision to close the stores was based on the company shifting its focus to the grocery market.

Amazon also sells groceries under the Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go brands.

Last May, Amazon said it planned to open 40 new Whole Foods stores in the U.S.

A company spokesperson told Food and Wine that the store closures have nothing to do with Whole Foods’ overall growth strategy, adding that the company has 50 new stores in the pipeline.

As of Monday at 1:17 p.m. ET, shares of Amazon were trading at $2,410.02, down $75.61, or 3.04%.