The Amazon Fresh store in Crystal City is closed, though the company says the closure is temporary.
ARLnow first received a tip about the closure on Saturday. Subsequent tips fretted about whether the closure might be more than temporary.
“I asked an Amazon associate… and she said no one knows why and management has not said why,” a tipster said. “Residents are worried it was shuttered, it’s our only easily accessible grocery store in the heart of Crystal City.”
But fret not, says an Amazon PR staffer, it will reopen.
“I can confirm that our Amazon Fresh grocery store in Crystal City is temporarily closed,” wrote Amazon’s Jessica Martin. “We regret the inconvenience to customers, and look forward to re-opening the store soon.”
She was not able to clarify a timeframe for reopening nor why the store closed.
“I don’t have any additional details to share at this time,” Martin wrote.
Amazon Fresh opened at 1550 Crystal Drive in Crystal City, a few blocks from the company’s Pentagon City HQ2, in July 2022. It’s the only full-service grocery store in Crystal City, though there are a pair of Harris Teeter stores and an Amazon-owned Whole Foods just outside of the neighborhood’s boundaries.
Amazon was rumored to have been planning to open a Fresh store on Columbia Pike, but that grocery tenant — whether Amazon or otherwise — ultimately fell through, delaying a planned redevelopment. Amazon has been “rethinking” its strategy for Fresh and other brick-and-mortar stores, according to various reports.