For Amazon, “bricks and mortar” means its customer-facing physical stores—not its entire retail business. Whole Foods Market is a current example. Amazon’s online business remains distinct, and it classifies orders placed online for delivery or store pickup as online sales, not physical-store sales.
What does “bricks and mortar” mean?
“Bricks and mortar” is a retail term for operating from physical stores that customers can visit. It contrasts with a pure-play online retailer or marketplace that has no customer-facing stores. The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office uses the term for retailers operating from physical stores and distinguishes them from businesses operating mainly on the internet.
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Applied to Amazon, the phrase describes its physical retail operations. It does not mean Amazon is only a store business, nor does it describe every sale Amazon makes.
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Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market is an Amazon-owned physical retailer. Amazon’s stores overview lists more than 550 Whole Foods Market stores across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The figure is Amazon’s store count as of October 7, 2026, and may change.
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Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh
On May 12, 2026, Amazon announced that it would close its Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores and convert various locations into Whole Foods Market stores. Amazon said it had not found a sufficiently distinctive customer experience and economic model for large-scale expansion of those Amazon-branded grocery stores. These are the company’s stated reasons and plans, not an independent assessment of their economics.
Amazon also said customers in available areas could continue shopping Amazon Fresh online, and that it would keep exploring physical retail, including a store-within-a-store concept and a possible mass physical-store format. The company planned to open more than 100 additional Whole Foods Market stores over the next few years; that is a plan, not a completed count. See Amazon’s May 12, 2026 announcement for its stated plans.
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How Amazon distinguishes store sales from online orders
Having a physical store and making a physical-store sale are not the same thing. Amazon’s investor-relations reporting defines “Physical stores” sales as products customers select in a store. An order placed online for delivery or pickup at a physical store is counted under “Online stores.” See Amazon’s quarterly results and reporting.
| How the customer shops | How Amazon categorizes the sale |
|---|---|
| The customer selects the product inside a store | Physical stores |
| The customer orders online for delivery | Online stores |
| The customer orders online for pickup at a store | Online stores |
This distinction helps explain how Amazon can operate physical stores while also running a large online retail business: the store describes where a retailer operates, while the sales category reflects how the customer placed the order.
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Does “bricks and mortar” mean Amazon is not online?
No. A retailer can have physical stores and sell online; the two channels can coexist. In a 2017/2018 commentary, Amazon UK Country Manager Doug Gurr said: “Bricks and mortar is here to stay, but is changing and evolving to include a mixture of both online and offline.” The statement is an observation about retail’s channels, not an up-to-date account of Amazon’s store portfolio. Read the Amazon UK commentary.
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What the term does—and does not—tell you
- It tells you there is a physical retail presence: customers can visit a store, such as Whole Foods Market.
- It does not describe every Amazon transaction: online orders remain online sales even when customers pick them up at a store.
- It does not mean Amazon is an online-only retailer: Amazon operates physical stores as well as online channels.
- It does not provide one fixed total for all Amazon store formats: announced closures, conversions, and future plans make the portfolio time-sensitive, and Amazon’s cited figures specifically describe Whole Foods Market.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
