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Amazon plans to close more than 50 of its physical stores.


The company said Wednesday that it has closed more than 50 physical retail stores, including two dozen bookstores and more than 30 Amazon 4-Star stores selling general merchandise.

The company’s more than 500 Whole Foods Market stores and two dozen Amazon Fresh grocery stores will remain open.

Company spokesperson Betsy Harden said in a statement that the company plans to “focus more on our Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go and Amazon Style stores, and our Just Walk Out technology.” “We’re committed to building great, long-term physical retail experiences and technologies, and we’re working closely with our affected employees to help them find new roles at Amazon.”

The move is outpacing businesses that haven’t gained traction for the internet giant, which has been trying for years to compete without success in a real retail business.

Company filings show that sales in its physical stores have plummeted. In 2018, the first full year after Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods, its physical stores had more than $17.2 billion in sales. Last year, that fell to just under $17.1 billion. (These figures do not include online sales for grocery delivery and pickup.) The company doubled its total sales during the same period.

Amazon has been playing around with stores that operate in real space since opening its first bookstore in his hometown of Seattle in 2015. At that time, rumors were sent to reporters that the company was setting up its own store. to mix up to dig up the plans. Over time, Amazon opened bookstores in 13 states.

Amazon announced another experiment, Amazon 4-Star stores, in 2018. It housed an odd mix of products that was well reviewed on the company’s website. “This store treats business like a whirlwind,” wrote a New York Times writer, to describe A store opened in 2018 in SoHo.

the closings, reported Previously by Reuters, it includes several Pop-Up kiosks, which are small malls significantly owned by Amazon. withdrawn in 2019.

Despite its e-commerce success, Amazon continues to experiment with new types of physical stores. It has opened nearly two dozen cashierless Amazon Go stores, largely small, take-and-go grocery stores in cities, and recently added cashierless technology to a Whole Foods store. In just a few years, Amazon has launched a new line of Amazon Fresh stores that sell traditional grocery items like Coca-Cola that Whole Foods doesn’t stock.

on Amazon in January announced Amazon Style is the first clothing store that will test whether customers have a tech-focused shopping experience, such as using an app to request items in the locker room.



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