Before Amazon was known for its inhumane treatment of workers and aggressively undercutting sellers with Amazon Basics, the company and its head, Jeff Bezos, expanded in the book market so rapidly and cheaply that many stores (like Borders Books) went out of business. Barnes & Noble managed to scrape by due to its online presence, nook investment, and expansion of the bookstore “experience” features like the cafe and events. Then, less than five years after Borders’ bankruptcy (2011), Amazon opened their first brick-and-mortar bookstore. And now … roughly seven years later, the company has announced it’s closing all Amazon Books stores.
I was unaware of these stores’ existence until years later, when I first saw one out in the wild. I stopped in my tracks, mouth agape. It was around 2018, because I knew that Amazon had recently bought Whole Foods. Speaking of Whole Foods, those stores are not part of the chopping block. Amazon is closing all physical bookstores (Amazon Books), Amazon 4-star, and Amazon Pop Up shops. The latter two were just popular four-star items from Amazon’s online store. In total, 68 stores across the U.S. and U.K. will close. All other retail ventures will still expand, unfortunately. This includes their new project, Amazon Style (a retail clothing store).
Wierd timing
Amazon declined to tell Reuters (who broke the story) how many jobs (for the 68 stores) would be directly affected by this pivot. Amazon spokesperson Betsy Harden said the company would help employees impacted find new roles within Amazon or offer them severance pay. I hope that this works out for each employee (including similar, if not better, pay, benefits, and commuting). However, knowing Amazon, I’m not holding my breath.
This closing of some retail locations comes at an interesting time. While foot traffic for retail stores did slow down quite a bit during the pandemic, many places bounced back. Within book sales, Publisher’s Weekly described a “mini indie bookstore boom” linked to the pandemic. Workers have requested fairer pay and policies in the last few weeks, specifically within Amazon’s brick-and-mortar locations. It’s tough to build worker solidarity with others when the turnover rate for the company is so high, and people have shuffled around.
