Amazon.com Inc said on Wednesday (2) it plans to close all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, pop-ups and shops carrying toys and home goods in the US and UK and will focus more on grocery markets.
The news, which Reuters was first to report, marks a turning point for a company that began as an online bookseller and helped drive established rivals such as Borders to bankruptcy. Amazon said it would focus more on its grocery markets and a department store concept going forward.
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.
Amazon declined to specify how many jobs would be cut, reports said.
Reuter quoted Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, saying that internet-savvy Amazon was right to forgo the niche market of brick-and-mortar book shoppers, which is “as bad a match as electric car maker Tesla Inc opening gas stations”.
Amazon, on the other hand, stated that it will continue to work on cashier-less grocery stores and other novel concepts, reports said.
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