Amazon To Close 68 Retail Stores

Amazon is to close down 68 bricks and mortar bookstores, pop-ups and 4-star stores in the United States and and United Kingdom.

This represents the closure of all Amazon’s physical Pop Up, Amazon Books and 4-star stores, which it has experimented with CNBC reported.

Going forward, its physical retail push will be focused on Amazon’s grocery chain, which includes Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh outlets.

Amazon experiment

Amazon over the years has experimented with a number of physical, bricks and mortar, retail concepts.

But sales from these physical outlets never reached the heights of its online operations.

Therefore Amazon is closing all its Amazon Books physical bookstores, as well as its Amazon 4-star and Amazon Pop Up shops, which sold a variety of electronics and other hot items.

The 4-star stores, for example, attempted to mesh Amazon’s in-store and offline operations by featuring top-selling products in its web store.

Closure dates will vary by location and Amazon was quoted as saying by CNBC that it would help affected staff find positions elsewhere in the company.

Workers who opt not to remain with Amazon will be offered severance packages, it said.

Amazon reportedly declined to say how many staff would be affected by the closures.

Physical retail

An Amazon spokesperson was quoted by CNBC as saying that the company “remains committed” to building long-term physical retail concepts and technologies.

They cited the recently launched Style stores, the first foray into physical clothing stores.

Amazon also said that it would continue to focus on its Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market grocery chains, as well as the Amazon Go convenience stores.