Amazon pulls plug on physical book stores and 4-star locations
Amazon is planning to close all 68 of its physical book stores, pop up shops and 4-star locations in the United States and United Kingdom.
The e-commerce giant told Reuters that physical retail remains an important way for it to reach shoppers.
It will continue to work on other concepts, such as its recently announced fashion location in greater Los Angeles and checkout-free grocery stores.
Amazon only opened the doors to the first Amazon 4-star store outside of the US during October of last year.
Situated in Bluewater, UK, this offers a range of products that are rated four stars and above, are top sellers, or are trending on Amazon’s UK site, including consumer electronics, toys, games, books, kitchen, and home.
It also has the full range of Amazon devices available to demo, including Kindle e-Readers, Fire Tablets, and Echo Dots.
Customers can purchase online and collect orders at the store as soon as the next day. It also offers parcel free, label free returns for items purchased both in-store and online.
Digital price tags are located alongside each product with the item price, average star rating, and the number of customer reviews.
Amazon account holders pay the same price as they would on the UK site. Prime members receive exclusive perks and deals throughout the store.
Amazon Fresh
Amazon today opened an Amazon Fresh store in Southwark, London, powered by its Just Walk Out technology.
Situated at 110 Southwark Street, SE1 0TA, this is the first of these checkout-free stores to launch in the UK during 2022.
It’s also the 16th such location on these shores, lining up alongside the likes of Camden, Ealing, White City Canary Wharf and Holborn Chancery Lane.
To shop, customers scan the QR code from their Amazon app, buy what they need, and walk out.
Amazon Fresh stores offer the likes of the e-commerce giant’s private food brand ‘by Amazon’.
They also feature an Amazon Hub counter where customers can pick up or return items purchased on Amazon.co,uk.
Further openings are planned in the greater London area, with reports suggesting Bankside could be next.
