Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) is pushing ahead with its grocery shop division despite putting the brakes on some expansion plans.
Speaking to the Financial Times, chief executive Andy Jassy said he wants to “go big” on the e-commerce company’s brick-and-mortar stores.
“We’re just still in the early stages,” Jassy said in the FT, adding: “We’re hopeful that in 2023, we have a format that we want to go big on, on the physical side.
Amazon’s largest acquisition to date was of grocer Whole Foods in 2018 for US$13.7bn.
However, since then, it has failed to put a significant dent in the US$1.6tn US grocery sector.
Despite vows to push ahead, Amazon recently clawed back on its expansion, with some of its Amazon Fresh grocery stores closing while new openings were paused, leading to a US$720mln impairment.
Earlier this month, Amazon reported mixed fourth-quarter results, with higher-than-expected sales through the company’s e-commerce services and cloud-computing business, but weaker-than-anticipated profits.
“In the short term, we face an uncertain economy, but we remain quite optimistic about the long-term opportunities for Amazon,” Jassy said in a statement.