Amazon closes bookstores and other physical stores | Technique

4-star units, kiosks and libraries will be closed. This will happen on various dates and the company says it will notify customers.

The company said workers will receive severance pay or help find jobs at any of the company’s nearby stores, such as more than a dozen Amazon Fresh grocery stores. The company did not specify the number of jobs that will be abolished.

• Amazon nearly doubled profits in the fourth quarter

The company’s “physical store” revenue — which made up just 3% of Amazon’s $137 billion in sales last quarter, largely reflecting consumer spending at its Whole Foods subsidiary — often failed to keep pace with the growth of the retailer’s other businesses.

Amazon said it will focus more on grocery stores and the department store concept in the future.

The end of a series of attempts

After opening its first bookstore in 2015, Amazon tested a range of retail ideas: cashless convenience stores, supermarkets, and the so-called “4-star” format that sells toys, household items, and other highly rated goods to customers.

The news, initially reported by Reuters, marked a turning point for the company that started as an online bookstore and helped push well-known competitors like Borders out of business.

The company created by Jeff Bezos aims to reach shoppers in more places and bring their online touch to the real world. The libraries pulled data from their huge collections and showed what people read, even the reviews they left on Amazon.