Amazon will shut its two bodily outfitters by subsequent week, lower than two years after it opened its first location in Might 2022. The closures seem to replicate a shift in focus towards its grocery shops and add to Amazon’s 68 different brick-and-mortar retailer closures final yr.
The retail large opened its first Amazon Style store in Glendale, California, and opened its second location in Columbus, Ohio in October of final yr. Amazon promoted its Type shops as a “personalised and handy purchasing expertise” and promised it will create native jobs, all of which shall be obliterated by the closures.
“After cautious consideration, we’ve determined to shut our two Amazon Type bodily retail shops and give attention to our on-line style purchasing expertise, the place we’re providing new, thrilling choice at nice worth and introducing progressive expertise to fulfill the wants of each buyer,” Amazon spokesperson Kristen Kish stated in an emailed assertion to Gizmodo.
Kish says that the corporate is working with the affected staff to redistribute them into different roles inside Amazon, however didn’t elaborate on what these roles is likely to be. If affected staff determine to not proceed working for Amazon, they may obtain severance pay and profession transition companies.
Amazon shuttered the vast majority of its bodily shops final yr from bookstores to mall pop-up kiosks and retailers carrying toys and residential items. The e-commerce large stated in March 2022 that it will be specializing in its grocery shops whereas concurrently shifting towards opening its California retail clothes retailer.
Retail shops are, and can proceed to be, an essential side of Amazon, Kish stated. Within the third quarter of 2023, bodily retailer gross sales grew by 6% year-over-year however didn’t specify what share was strictly grocery gross sales. She added that by specializing in grocery retailer companies together with Amazon Recent, Entire Meals, and Amazon Go, the corporate will allegedly make the lives of shoppers simpler.
The shop closures final yr kicked off mass layoffs at Amazon in November 2021. The corporate reportedly planned to lay off about 10,000 employees, however by January 2022, that quantity had expanded to more than 18,000 workers. Amazon laid off another 9,000 corporate and tech workers between March and April of this yr.