Amazon Will Shut Down All 87 'Pop-Up' Retail Stores

Amazon will reportedly shut down all of its pop-up retail stores in the United States by the end of April.

There are currently 87 Amazon pop-up stores in 21 states — all of which are expected to close by April 29.

The Wall Street Journal reported that over the past few days, Amazon “has begun to notify its employees and partners that it would close the stores by April 29th,” and also “informed pop-up store staff during calls last week.”

Some employees were reportedly “surprised,” as they “weren’t expecting to be out of jobs so soon, especially in light of the newly opened stores.”

“Across our Amazon network, we regularly evaluate our businesses to ensure we’re making thoughtful decisions around how we can best serve our customers,” declared an Amazon spokesman to CNBC. “After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program, and are instead expanding Amazon Books and Amazon 4-star, where we provide a more comprehensive customer experience and broader selection.”

Amazon also claimed, “We work to find opportunities within the company for employees,” but declined to “share further information on our employees.”

20 of Amazon’s pop-up stores are located in Kohl’s stores, and Kohl’s claimed in a statement that Kohl’s employees working at pop-up stores would “assume other roles.”

“Some of them were staffed by Kohl’s associates, some were staffed by Amazon employees,” claimed a Kohl’s spokesman to CNBC. “For Kohl’s associates, they’ll assume other roles within the store.”

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Amazon pop-up stores “typically occupy a few hundred square feet of space and showcase devices like voice-assistant speakers, tablets and Kindle e-readers. They feature staff, dressed casually in black Amazon T-shirts, who encourage passersby to sample the newest products.”

Amazon’s “4-star stores,” which the company will be expanding, reportedly “sell products rated four stars or higher by Amazon customers.”