Amazon Fresh Store To Close Sunday, Shoppers Jam OL Store For Last Minute Deals

OAK LAWN, IL — Oak Lawn village officials said they were blindsided by Amazon’s announcement earlier this week that it would be closing all its brick-and-mortar Amazon Fresh stores, including the location in Oak Lawn, which is slated to close on Sunday, Feb. 1.

Mayor Terry Vorderer said he learned of Amazon closing its Amazon Fresh stores, in addition to Amazon Go brick-and-mortar locations, through the news media. The Oak Lawn Amazon Fresh store opened in 2021 at 4061 W. 95th S.

“It’s not a plus,” Vorderer told Patch. “Nobody has received any official notification either through Amazon, Whole Foods, or the property management.”

By closing Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores, Amazon is looking to grow its online ordering and same-day grocery delivery business. Amazon plans to convert some physical locations to Whole Foods Market stores, which it acquired for $13.7 billion in 2017.

Last week in Orland Park, trustees gave Amazon the go-ahead for a 229,000-square-foot building housing mostly retail, set on 35 vacant acres at the corner of 159th and LaGrange Road.

Fairbourne Properties, LLC, which manages the Amazon-anchored Oak Lawn Commons retail properties at 4031 W. 95th St., that also includes Duly Health Care, did not return Patch’s calls seeking comment.

On Thursday evening, the Amazon Fresh store in Oak Lawn closed early and stopped admitting shoppers when the store reached capacity. Long lines could be seen inside at the registers, with shoppers taking advantage of the store’s 50-percent and 70-percent discounts. Many shelves, from our vantage point, had been cleaned out.

It is unknown at this time if the soon-to-be-shuttered 95th Street Amazon Fresh store will be converted into a Whole Foods store.

“We’re in the dark as much as everybody else,” Vorderer said.

Meanwhile, if you want to take advantage of the closeout discounts, Amazon Fresh will reopen at 8 a.m. Friday.