Amazon announced this week that the company plans to close down all 87 of its pop-up stores in the United States by the end of April after tinkering with the concept since 2014. These stores are can be found in mall kiosks, or inside other stores such as Whole Foods and Kohl’s, and primarily sell technology such as tablets, e-readers, and Echo and Alexa devices. The shops typically take up only few hundred square feet of space and are staffed by Amazon employees to help educate consumers about the products.
An Amazon spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday: “After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program.” This is not a sign that Amazon is moving away from brick-and-mortar concept, however — in fact, quite the opposite.
The company is about to debut a new line of grocery stores and is also adding more locations to its popular “Amazon Go” cashierless convenience stores, along with other retail options.
Amazon is expanding its bookstores as well as its so-called 4-star stores, which sell products rated four stars or higher by Amazon customers, “where we provide a more comprehensive customer experience and broader selection,” the spokeswoman said. “We look forward to opening additional locations of both stores this year.”
Products at these stores will include books, toys, games, home and kitchen goods, electronics, and Amazon devices among other items, she said.
While Kohl’s will no longer host the Amazon pop-up stores, chief executive officer Michelle Gass stated that the company simply moving away from a “the store-within-a-store” concept and will instead incorporate Amazon-branded products into its over 200 department stores.
Likewise, real estate landlord Charles Lanier, who operates a Raleigh mall that contains an Amazon pop-up told the Wall Street Journal that the pop-up stores “were designed to ascertain demand, and Amazon can leverage that data for prototypes of other stores.”
In any case, news of the closings brought mixed reactions on Twitter:
The operative word in this announcement is “experiment” – on the heels of shutting down the pop-ups they are opening more brick and mortar (grocery) stores.
Lesson 👉🏻Launch-Learn-Iterate-Learn-Rinse/Repeat. #GrowthIQ https://t.co/J6zznZnvUz
— Tiffani Bova (@Tiffani_Bova) March 6, 2019
First LIC, now brick and mortar retail. I'm starting to think that Amazon is the ultimate Amazon customer. They are interested in something. They get very excited about the purchase. And they're not at all squeamish about returning it. https://t.co/f7GD6katT7
— Max Gross (@SchlubGross) March 6, 2019
I loved Amazon’s pop-up shops. The staff were hands-on and knowledgable, and I looked forward to going to their locations to buy the latest tech goodies.
— Brett Petersel (@Brett) March 6, 2019
https://twitter.com/gwestr/status/1103418837909725184
https://twitter.com/inyhwang/status/1103386849941352453
"However, if there are any local governments out there willing to provide tax incentives for these locations, hit us up."https://t.co/EYNun4XSFu
— Tom Petruno (@tpetruno) March 6, 2019
It’s unclear what Amazon plans for pop-up stores outside of the United States, but either way, it seems safe that consumers are going to get their IRL Amazon fix one way or another