Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) recently announced its intends to close all of its Amazon Books stores, along with its Amazon 4-star and Amazon Pop Up shops. These shutdowns have impacted 68 stores throughout North America and the United Kingdom.
The exact dates of these store closures will depend on the location, but Amazon has stated that they would guide workers in terms of finding employment elsewhere within the company after the store closures occur.
This move to shut down their physical bookstores signifies a pivotal point for Amazon, according to Reuters, which has stated that they intend to focus more on grocery markets and the potential creation of department stores in the near future. The e-commerce giant will keep its Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods grocery stores, in addition to Amazon Go convenience stores, in business. The company will also keep its "Amazon Style" clothing store in business.
There have been a variety of reactions regarding the shutting down of these brick-and-mortar bookstores. Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Reuters that Amazon was correct to make the decision of shutting down the bookstores, given that they primarily seem to obtain sales from online. "Retail is hard, and they're discovering that," Pacher added, saying that Amazon's new chief executive Andy Jassy likely made this call after reviewing the company's broad array of businesses, Reuters reports.
According to an Amazon spokesperson, they still "remain committed" to establishing long-term retail stores and technologies, in spite of this move to get rid of brick-and-mortar stores.
In the meantime, Amazon has additionally launched other retail technologies, such as Amazon One--a technology that permits users to scan the palms of their hands in order to purchase products--and Dash Carts--a technology that that consists of a shopping cart with sensors that permits people to check out without cashiers.
Although the shutting down of Amazon's physical stores seems to be a challenging dilemma, it also allows for more purchases to be made online, and that's where Amazon makes the bulk of its revenue.