Amazon just confirmed the closure of eight Amazon Go stores across the US. These innovative stores enable customers to shop independently without checking out.Remember, in 2018, global e-commerce leader Amazon launched a new kind of retail space: Amazon Go. These stores are not like traditional convenience stores because they don't have boxes.
Here's how it works: Customers scan their smartphones at a terminal at the store's entrance. Your payment method will then be recorded. Then all they have to do is shop. Each Amazon Go is equipped with sensors and cameras that can film and sort items that customers photograph.
Once his purchases are finished, the customer only has to leave the establishment, before being automatically debited. In recent years, Amazon has refined the Amazon Go formula, including testing payment by fingerprint in 2021.
But as you may know, Amazon has been going through a complicated period for the past few months. After losing no less than 1000 billion dollars on the stock market in November 2022, the American giant has confirmed the layoff of more than 10,000 employees. And in this context of crisis, Amazon Go stores will not be spared.
8 AMAZON GO STORES CLOSING IN THE US
For good reason, Amazon has just confirmed the closure of eight Amazon Go stores in the United States, including two in Seattle for security reasons. This is the company's latest move to reduce some of its physical retail operations. "Like any brick-and-mortar retailer, we periodically evaluate our store portfolio and make optimization decisions along the way," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement.
In January 2023, current Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced that Amazon Stores, the group's retail division, would be affected by this massive restructuring plan. This shutdown for certain Amazon Go stores (about twenty are still open in the USA) comes just a year after the closure of 68 physical stores of the company, among the Amazon 4 Stars, Books and Pop Up brands.