Microsoft To Close Store In Danbury

DANBURY, CT — Microsoft has announced it will be closing its brick-and-mortar store locations, including the one in the Danbury Fair Mall.

In a news release, the company said its retail team members will continue to serve customers from Microsoft corporate facilities, remotely providing sales, training, and support.

Microsoft will continue to invest in its digital storefronts on Microsoft.com, and stores in Xbox and Windows. The company will also "reimagine" spaces that serve all customers, including operating Microsoft Experience Centers in London, NYC, Sydney, and Redmond campus locations, according to the release.

"Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has proven success serving customers beyond any physical location," said Microsoft corporate vice president David Porter. "We are grateful to our Microsoft Store customers and we look forward to continuing to serve them online and with our retail sales team at Microsoft corporate locations."

The closing of Microsoft Store physical locations will result in a pre-tax charge of approximately $450 million, or $0.05 per share, to be recorded in the current quarter ending June 30, 2020. The charge includes primarily asset write-offs and impairments.

Since the Microsoft Store locations closed in late March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company's retail employees have been redeployed to help small businesses and education customers, virtually train enterprise and education customers on remote work and learning software, and assist customers with support calls. The team also hosted more than 14,000 online workshops and summer camps and more than 3,000 virtual graduations.

"We deliberately built teams with unique backgrounds and skills that could serve customers from anywhere. The evolution of our workforce ensured we could continue to serve customers of all sizes when they needed us most, working remotely these last months," said Porter. "Speaking over 120 languages, their diversity reflects the many communities we serve. Our commitment to growing and developing careers from this talent pool is stronger than ever."

With significant growth through its digital storefronts, including Microsoft.com, and stores on Xbox and Windows, the company says it will continue to invest in across software and hardware. New services include 1:1 video chat support, online tutorial videos, virtual workshops, and more.

"It is a new day for how Microsoft Store team members will serve all customers," said Porter. "We are energized about the opportunity to innovate in how we engage with all customers, maximize our talent for greatest impact, and most importantly help our valued customers achieve more."