Amazon to shut-down US pop-up stores, focus on opening more book stores

Amazon.com will close all of its US pop-up stores and focus instead on opening more book stores, a company spokesperson said

The company’s shares closed down 1.4 percent, while shares of bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc ended 8.9 percent lower.

Amazon’s 87 pop-up stores in the United States are expected to close by the end of April, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, citing some of the employees at the stores.

The news underscores how the online retailer is still working out its brick-and-mortar strategy.

Pop-up stores for years helped Amazon showcase novel products like its voice-controlled Echo speakers, but the company is now able to market those products and more at its larger chain of Whole Foods stores, acquired in 2017, and cashierless Amazon Go stores, which opened to the public last year.