Amazon to lay off nearly 1,000 Philly-area workers at shuttering Amazon Fresh stores
The layoffs are effective at the end of April, according to a state filing, and include employees at all six Philly-area locations.
Amazon plans to lay off nearly 1,000 Amazon Fresh employees in the Philadelphia region as it closes all of the grocery stores.
The layoffs are planned for the end of April, according to a Thursday WARN Act filing with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. They include the employees of all six Philly-area Amazon Fresh locations — 205 at the Northern Liberties store, 189 in Broomall, 161 in Bensalem, 157 in Langhorne, 144 in Warrington, and 127 in Willow Grove, according to the filing.
The e-commerce giant announced on Tuesday that it would be closing all of its physical Amazon Fresh stores. Some will be converted to Whole Foods Markets, according to Amazon, but the company has yet to say which.
By the end of April, Amazon also plans to lay off nearly 900 New Jersey employees, the vast majority of whom work in northern counties where there are Amazon Fresh stores, according to a WARN Act filing with New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development.
» READ MORE: All Amazon Fresh stores, including six in the Philly area, are closing
The day after announcing the Amazon Fresh closures, Amazon said 16,000 employees companywide would be losing their jobs as part of a broader reorganization.
“We’ve been working to strengthen our organization by reducing layers, increasing ownership, and removing bureaucracy,” Amazon said in a statement announcing the layoffs.
The company said most U.S. employees will have 90 days to look for a new role internally. After that, those leaving the company will receive severance pay, “outplacement services,” and health insurance benefits, as applicable, according to Amazon.
With its move to shutter the Fresh stores, Amazon has said it will “double down” on online grocery delivery and expand its Whole Foods footprint. Whole Foods, which Amazon bought in 2017, has more than a dozen locations in the Philadelphia area.
The announcement of Amazon Fresh closures came a year after Philadelphia Whole Foods workers voted to form a union. The workers have since struggled to get the company to negotiate a contract.
“Amazon Whole Foods, a trillion dollar entity, treats us like robots to be exploited and squeezed for maximum profits,” Jasmine Jones, a Philadelphia Whole Foods worker and member of Whole Foods Workers United, said Tuesday in a statement that noted the company’s Whole Foods expansion plans. “They are making billions of dollars off of our labor and we deserve better pay and benefits.”