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Amazon is shutting 68 retail stores, ending Amazon Books, 4-star and Pop Up shops

The closures include 68 stores across the U.S. and U.K., Amazon said.

Amazon is shutting down 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 closures affect 68 stores across the U.S. and U.K., Amazon said. Closure dates will vary by location and Amazon said it would help affected employees find roles elsewhere in the company. Workers who opt not to stay will be offered severance packages, it said.

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

News of the store closures was first reported by Reuters.

Amazon has gradually launched an array of brick-and-mortar concepts, from supermarkets to retail stores offering branded electronics like Fire tablets and Echo smart speakers. The 4-star stores, in particular, attempted to mesh Amazon's in-store and offline operations by featuring top-selling products in its web store.

But sales growth of the physical stores unit has noticeably lagged the company's overall retail business. Physical stores, which includes Whole Foods and Fresh outlets, reported lower sales in 2021 than in 2018.

Amazon is trimming its physical retail footprint after coming off its slowest growth rate for any quarter since 2001. Shares are down more than 8% so far this year, and the stock was the worst performer in the Big Tech group last year.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company "remains committed" to building long-term physical retail concepts and technologies, citing the recently launched Style stores, the first foray into physical clothing stores. The company also said that it would continue to focus on its Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market grocery chains, Amazon Go convenience stores, and to embrace the Just Walk Out cashierless technology.

Amazon has also introduced other experimental retail technologies like Amazon One, which lets users scan the palm of their hands to pay for items, and Dash Carts, a shopping cart filled with sensors that lets shoppers check out without a cashier.

The physical stores unit is currently overseen by Dilip Kumar, a former "shadow" of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

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I never bothered to buy anything at their 4-star stores whenever I was around the area or had to pick up a Amazon order.

L. Ron zyzzle

It was a stupid damn idea. Let's open up the type of store we put out of business! What's the worst that can happen?

milo bloom

Yeah, really felt like an odd idea.

They opened an Amazon Fresh grocery by us and it got a little traffic, but the most we use it is for returning stuff we bought off their website. When we're walking through the store to the back for the return counter, we see more employees filling the online grocery orders than regular customers shopping for themselves.

And because they came in with their fancy new store (where the Toys R Us used to be), the local market that we love spent a ton of money remodeling their place to make it look nicer and add a hot food counter which means their grocery prices will go up which is what we didn't want.


And I've been into the 4 star store at Oak Brook Mall a couple times and never saw anything there that I had to have right that moment. It kinda made sense around the Christmas shopping season but certainly not year round.

Why So Blu?

Outside of a couple of Whole Foods in town, I don't live close to any of the other shops. I also don't shop at WF, because they're still expensive as fuck.

milo bloom

Yeah, we gave up on Whole Foods a long time ago. Just absolutely crazy expensive. Our premium grocery store now is Mariano's, but we also get a lot at Aldi and Target, plus the locally owned market style grocery stores.

jjcool

Been in the local 4-star shop one time. It's a novelty, nothing more. You can't plan on getting anything specific there as there is no telling what they are going to be stocking. So it's a browse type store. Nothing more.

PhantomStranger

Everything Amazon has done in the physical retail space feel like experiments and tentative brand plays, than serious attempts at expanding that division. Whole Foods is fine but it's aimed at the richest consumer segments.

Troy Stiffler

Whole Foods works because most people don't want to order perishables online. Even then, they have delivery.

I never saw or went to an Amazon brick and mortar store. Only saw little news bits etc.

DJariya

There is an Amazon book B&M at one of our local Malls in Cerritos, CA. They do have a sign in front saying they are closing soon. Honestly I never really saw the point for the store. It was slow most of the time and everything in there can easily be bought and delivered to your house.

jjcool

Isn't that true of every brick and mortar store? The point of a physical store is to buy something and walk out with it immediately. A dedicated Amazon book store makes a lot more sense than their 4-star stores or whatever they called those that just had random items as long as they had 4-stars or more on their website.

Josh-da-man

I've read quite a few horror stories about people buying food from Amazon; they receive stuff that's long-expired, moldy, packaging is opened/broken. And I'm talking about packaged food, not perishables like produce.

DJariya

It's pretty much relying on impulse buys than someone actually going on Amazon and researching the product. But, obviously the impulse buy strategy didn't work for these B&Ms.

zyzzle

I don't need Whole foods at 3x the price for my perishables. It's a terrible scam, for foodies and highbrow people who like to be fleeced.

Amazon / online deliveries being even worse, since you can't inspect food before purchase, and are at their mercy for sending expired, close to sell-by date foods, damaged packages, etc.

My mantra is I can get 90% as good food with careful shopping at my local plebian supermarkets without hoity-toity places like Whole Foods. It's so worth it, especially in these days of awful inlfation, insane costs, and short supplies.

PhantomStranger

I've generally thought the quality of food at Whole Foods has gone down since Amazon took over. Though it's hard separating that trend from the supply chain crisis, which has seemingly affected every major grocery chain.