Amazon has put the cork in its large-scale UK roll-out of Amazon Fresh, the till-free grocery store chain, after facing poor sales in the current crop of 19 shops.
The move comes as shoppers tighten their belts amid the cost of living crisis as inflation soars into double-digit territory.
According to a Sunday Times report, Amazon has ceased looking for locations for the hundreds of new stores in the pipeline, although a spokesperson for the US e-commerce giant said it will consider reviving expansion plans in the next 12 to 18 months.
Amazon Fresh stores use "grab and go" tracking technology to provide a cashierless shopping experience in a similar vein to its Amazon Go stores.
The move follows the closure of 68 brick-and-mortar book shops and electronics outlets across the UK and US earlier this year after failing to gain traction.
Despite a slump in retail and online sales, Amazon’s revenues topped estimates in its latest quarterly results on the back of strong demand for its cloud-computing services.
Amazon is also bleeding subscribers of its Prime streaming service as households cut spending on non-essential goods and services.
NASDAQ-listed AMZN shares were down approximately 3% in Monday’s pre-market trade.