{"id":450567,"date":"2025-09-25T14:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T14:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/450567\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T14:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T14:30:12","slug":"amazon-fresh-closures-divide-london-customers-in-hounslow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/450567\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon Fresh closures divide London customers in Hounslow"},"content":{"rendered":"

People in Hounslow are divided following the announcement that Amazon will close its 19 till-free Fresh stores across London.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The retail giant said on Tuesday it would shutter 14 shops with the remaining five converted into Whole Foods outlets, the US chain acquired by Amazon in 2017.<\/p>\n

Amazon Fresh opened its first high-street store in the UK four years ago, allowing customers to walk out without visiting a till by charging their account online. There are 250 staff employed across all sites, with Amazon stating as many as possible will be offered redeployment opportunities in the organisation.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside the Hounslow branch in west London, author Natasha Walker, 36, told The Londoners: \u201cThis is killing me. It\u2019s the easiest place to get lunch before work. For the quality you get its cheaper than elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous Amazon would do this \u2013 when it\u2019s a prime place near a train station.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natasha believed using her mobile account to pay was daunting but ultimately easy to master, adding: \u201cIt took me a year to build up the courage to come here.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first few times I went in I was genuinely afraid they would accuse me of stealing. So I purposefully kept everything in my hand because it\u2019s weird just putting it in your bag and walking out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran Lodhi, a first-time visitor who works at Heathrow, said the technology was confusing but added: \u201cThe staff were really helpful. It\u2019s a shame they\u2019re shutting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geena Binua, 26, also felt the closures were a shame but said: \u201cIf they go there\u2019s other stores for us to go to that are more convenient.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hounslow branch is in close proximity to several local supermarkets, and chains such as Lidl and Asda.<\/p>\n

Vanessa Borges, a 25 year old from Isleworth, said: \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the right market here, because you have local shops and then Lidl down the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think mostly people prefer buying from Lidl. I don\u2019t see a lot of people coming to Amazon Fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

NHS worker Yosser Shamki, 28, who was initially opposed to the store because of Amazon\u2019s \u201cunethical business practices\u201d, said: \u201cI was boycotting Amazon for seven years until I started working nearby. It\u2019s the only place I can go without being late back from lunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love for this place to be gone tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

South West Londoner has contacted Amazon for comment but received no reply.<\/p>\n

Feature image credit: Jack Prentice<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People in Hounslow are divided following the announcement that Amazon will close its 19 till-free Fresh stores across…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[324,150757,748,393,4884,29445,41723,257,2070,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-450567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-amazon","9":"tag-amazon-fresh","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-high-street-closures","14":"tag-hounslow","15":"tag-london","16":"tag-supermarkets","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115265419633007742","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}