Amazon has announced that it plans to close all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, pop-ups and shops carrying toys and home goods in the United States and United Kingdom.
This marks a turning point for a company that began as an online bookseller and helped drive established rivals such as Borders to bankruptcy. The ecommerce and retail giant said it would focus more on its grocery markets and a department store concept going forward.
Reuters reports that after opening its first book shop in Seattle in 2015, Amazon has tried out an array of ideas in retail: convenience stores without cashiers, supermarkets, and a format called “4-star” in which it sells toys, household items and other goods with high customer ratings.
Amazon had aimed to reach shoppers in more places and bring its online touch into the real world. Its bookstores would pull from its vast data trove and showcase what people were reading, even the reviews they left on Amazon’s website.
But the company’s innovations were not enough to counter the march toward online shopping that Amazon itself had set off.
Its “physical stores” revenue – a mere 3% of Amazon’s $137 billion in sales last quarter, largely reflective of consumer spending at its Whole Foods subsidiary – has often failed to keep pace with growth in the retailer’s other businesses.
Amazon will close its 4-star, pop-up and bookstore locations on various dates and notify customers via signage. Workers will receive severance or can receive help finding jobs at any company stores nearby, such as more than a dozen Amazon Fresh grocery locations it has announced, the retailer said.
