Amazon Closing All Bookstores, Including On Upper West Side

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Amazon is ending a chapter on its business model as the company announced Wednesday that it is closing its bookstores and pop-up shops, including on the Upper West Side.

In a story first reported in Reuters, the company announced that it is closing all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, pop-up shops, and stores selling toys and home goods after experimenting in this market. This includes stores throughout the United States and two in the United Kingdom. Amazon instead will be focusing on a grocery store and department store model.

The Upper West Side Amazon Books outpost was located on the third floor of The Shops at Columbus Circle near West 59th Street – it opened in 2017.

The store held around 3,000 titles that all had four stars or better ratings on Amazon.com or Amazon.com bestsellers.

The layout of the store was much smaller than a long, winding Barnes & Nobles, but also larger than what one would usually associate with a cozy independent bookstore.

It also had a section just for Amazon’s electronic products. Customers could test out items such as the Kindle, Amazon Echo, Fire Television, and Fire Tablet Lines.

It is unclear at what exact date the Upper West Side location will close.

"We remain committed to building great, long-term physical retail experiences and technologies, and we're working closely with our affected employees to help them find new roles within Amazon," Betsy Harden, a spokesperson for the company, said in a statement to CNN.

The company will now focus more on its Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go, and Amazon Style stores and its Just Walk Out technology, according to a press release.

Amazon will close its 4-star, pop-up and bookstore locations on various dates and notify customers via signage. Workers will receive severance or can receive help finding jobs at any company stores nearby. Amazon has not said how many jobs would be cut.

The pandemic likely could have influenced this decision, as people were forced to stay indoors rather than shop at stores, turning to online shopping as a resource instead. However, market influences were considered to be a determining factor.

According to Reuters, Amazon's "physical stores" revenue - a mere 3% of Amazon's $137 billion in sales last quarter, was largely reflective of consumer spending at its Whole Foods subsidiary.

Amazon started as an online marketplace for books in 1994.