Amazon To Close Shops, Norwalk Location Expected To Close: Report

NORWALK, CT — Amazon announced last week it will close all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, pop-ups, and shops in the United States and the United Kingdom, according to a report by Reuters. One Connecticut location is among the stores expected to close.

Following the closures, Amazon will concentrate its efforts on Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, its convenience concept called Amazon Go and its upcoming Amazon Style stores.

The closures will affect Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star and Amazon Pop Up locations. Connecticut has one Amazon 4-star store location at the SoNo Collection mall in Norwalk.

A closing date has not been announced yet. Spokespersons for the mall and Brookfield Properties referred questions about the SoNo Collection store to Amazon, who could not immediately be reached for comment.

Amazon opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore in Seattle in 2015, two decades after it began selling books online and helped drive a number of shops out of business. Amazon's 4-star shops, which first made their debut in 2018, carry a limited selection of best-selling products from top categories that Amazon.com sells, including devices, consumer electronics, toys and games.

The purpose was to reach more customers in person rather than online; however, the company's physical stores were responsible for only 3 percent of $137 billion in sales last quarter, most of which came from Whole Foods, Reuters reported.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.