Amazon announced Friday that it is to permanently shut eight of its high-tech Amazon Go convenience stores, amid weakening sales growth for the company.
The affected stores, which close from April 1, number two each in Seattle and New York City, and four in San Francisco, Geekwire reports(Opens in a new window). The cashier-less Amazon Go stores were first launched in 2016 and were marketed as grocery stores catering to office workers looking for a meal on the run.
The Go stores feature cameras and sensors that detect when products are taken off and returned to shelves. Instead of being scanned by a cashier or self-service checkout, customers can simply walk out of the store with their selected items, as their cards are charged automatically upon leaving.
In a statement published by Geekwire, an Amazon spokesperson said: “Like any physical retailer, we periodically assess our portfolio of stores and make optimization decisions along the way,” adding, “We remain committed to the Amazon Go format, operate more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the U.S., and will continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers as we keep evolving our Amazon Go stores.”
The news comes after Amazon has been seriously tightening its belt. On Friday the company revealed it had made the decision to pause construction on its second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. In January, Amazon said it was laying off another 8,000 employees after already saying it was letting go of 10,000 roles, with Go being hit hard by those layoffs.
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As Bloomberg reports(Opens in a new window), Amazon, which still operates over 20 Go stores, has closed down bookstores and novelty shops around the US, in addition to pausing the previously planned expansion of Amazon Fresh stores.
And according to a December report(Opens in a new window) from The Information, at least seven newly built Amazon Fresh stores are empty. The stores serve as a drive-up grocery pick-up service for Amazon Prime members.
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