Amazon To Close Its Bookstores As It Expands Its Grocery Market

DEDHAM, MA - Amazon is ending a chapter on its business model as the company announced Wednesday that it is closing its bookstores and pop-up shops, including the Dedham and Lynnfield bookstores in Massachusetts.

In a story first reported in Reuters, the company announced that it is closing all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, pop-up shops and stores selling toys and home goods after experimenting in this market. This includes stores throughout the United States and two in the United Kingdom. Amazon instead will be focusing on a grocery store and department store model.

A store employee who asked not to be named confirmed that the Dedham bookstore will be closing on Saturday, March 19.

“We’ve decided to close our Amazon 4-star, Books, and Pop Up stores, and focus more on our Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go, and Amazon Style stores and our Just Walk Out technology," according to an email from a spokesperson at Amazon. "We remain 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 within Amazon.”

It is unclear what the effect, if any, there will be on Dedham's Amazon warehouse.

Amazon began as an online retailer in Seattle, Washington in 1994 created by Jeff Bezos, first selling books online. It opened its first bookstore there a year later. Its emergence as a bookseller drove Borders to bankruptcy, according to the article.

The company has experimented with an array of ideas in retail: convenience stores without cashiers, supermarkets, and a format called "4-star" in which it sells toys, household items and other goods with high customer ratings. This includes the Natick 4-star store.

Amazon will close its 4-star, pop-up and bookstore locations on various dates and notify customers via signage. Workers will receive severance or can receive help finding jobs at any company stores nearby. Amazon has not said how many jobs would be cut.

The pandemic likely could have influenced this decision, as people were forced to stay indoors rather than shop at stores, turning to online shopping as a resource instead. However, market incluences were considered to be a determining factor.

According to Reuters, Amazon's "physical stores" revenue - a mere 3% of Amazon's $137 billion in sales last quarter, was largely reflective of consumer spending at its Whole Foods subsidiary.

WCVB-TV reported that the decision will allow the company to focus on its Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods operations. Two Amazon Fresh grocery stores are under construction in Saugus and Braintree. Saugus is slated to become the first Amazon Fresh store in Massachusetts and New England on Route 1 at the former Big Y location.