500+ local jobs lost in Amazon Fresh closures — when will Sacramento-area stores close?
Amazon will shed more than 500 jobs at its three Sacramento-area Amazon Fresh locations after the tech giant announced it would close its branded grocery stores nationwide, according to state employment filings.
In all, 516 employees at Amazon Fresh stores in Citrus Heights, Elk Grove and Roseville were scheduled to lose their jobs, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices submitted to state officials. While the workers’ final day was listed as April 28, Amazon has not said when the stores will close though state law will require it to be open into March.
The federal WARN Act requires employers to provide advance notice of mass layoffs and business closures.
The Citrus Heights store on Sunrise Boulevard employed 163 workers, according to the filing. The Elk Grove Boulevard location employed 179 workers, and the Roseville store on Stanford Ranch Boulevard employed 174. The three sites out of 22 statewide are the company’s only Northern California locations. In all, 57 Amazon Fresh stores and 15 Amazon Go convenience stores will close nationwide, the company announced Tuesday.
Amazon said it was “working whenever possible to help them find roles elsewhere in Amazon,” according to a company statement.
State law to keep stores open till March
Under a California law passed in 2024, Amazon will be required to keep its Amazon Fresh stores in the state open for at least 45 days after announcing the closures. Because the company made its announcement Tuesday, the three Sacramento-area stores are expected to stay open until at least mid-March.
The law, Senate Bill 1089 by Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas, D-Los Angeles, requires grocery and pharmacy operators with more than five employees to provide advance written notice to workers, state agencies and local governments before shutting down a store. The measure was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2024 and was aimed at preventing abrupt closures that disrupt employee livelihoods and community access to food, according to the bill.
Amazon said it was closing the stores as it shifted its focus to online same-day grocery delivery and its Whole Foods supermarkets. That included a new 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods store in Elk Grove, located blocks from the city’s Amazon Fresh store, that was scheduled to open in September.
Amazon acquired Whole Foods in 2017 for about $13.5 billion.
The company said it planned to open more than 100 additional Whole Foods stores over the next several years. Some Amazon Fresh locations would be converted into Whole Foods stores, though Amazon did not specify which sites would be converted.
Amazon officials said the company struggled to develop a scalable business model for the Amazon Fresh supermarkets. The stores also failed to draw consistent customer traffic despite technology-focused features such as Alexa-powered tools and app-assisted shopping.
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 5:38 PM.
.JPG)