OM in the News: The Short Life Cycle of Amazon Go

It doesn’t seem that long ago that we posted the news that Amazon was opening 57 Amazon Go cashierless bricks and mortar store grocery sores.

We even highlighted this exciting digital-driven advancement in an OM in Action box in Chapter 5 (see page 175). But as we also point out in in our discussion of product life cycles in that chapter (Design of Goods and Services): “Products are born. They live and they die.”

The e-commerce giant just announced that “its branded stores failed to deliver a distinctive customer experience with an economic model that could be scaled up successfully.” This marks the latest pivot in Amazon’s more than decadelong effort to break into physical retail, reports The Wall Street Journal (Jan. 28, 2026).

Amazon Go’s convenience stores, which let customers check out electronically without waiting in line, also never resonated with shoppers on a large scale, and the company has trimmed its fleet by more than half since 2023. The company does, however, license its Just Walk Out technology to retailers at more than 360 locations in five countries, including colleges and universities, sports arenas, hospitals and airports.

Amazon plans to continue experimenting with bricks-and-mortar retail. The company just won approval to open its largest-ever store in Orland Park, Ill., where it will sell groceries, general merchandise and prepared foods. The megastore, which at 230,000 square feet will be big enough to fit nearly two Target stores, will incorporate in-person and digital shopping.

Product life cycle can span a few days (a concert t-shirt), months (seasonal fashions) years (NFL Madden football), or decades (Boeing 737). Amazon Go lasted eight years.

Classroom discussion questions:

1. Why did Amazon Go fail?
2. Name a few other products that also exhibited short life cycles.