Amazon closed another of its Amazon Go convenience stores in downtown Seattle, three months after it announced that eight of the high-tech physical retail locations were closing across the U.S.
The 5-year-old store was at the base of the Madison Centre office tower at the corner of 5th Avenue and Marion Street. The last day of business was June 16.
“We’ve closed our 5th and Marion Seattle Amazon Go location, and are working closely with employees to find new opportunities within Amazon, including at other nearby stores,” Amazon spokesperson Jessica Martin said in an emailed statement to GeekWire. “We continue operating more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the U.S., and look forward to opening more in the future.”
The 1,450-square-foot store opened in August 2018. It was the second Go location to open after the first such store debuted at the base of Amazon’s Day One office tower several months earlier that year.
Amazon did not provide a specific reason for the closing, and the spokesperson said no other stores are impacted at this time. There are four remaining Amazon Go stores within Seattle, as well as two additional stores in Mill Creek and Puyallup, Wash.
In March, the company confirmed the closing of eight Go stores, including two in Seattle, and said at the time that like any physical retailer, it would periodically assess its portfolio of stores and “make optimization decisions along the way.”
“We remain committed to the Amazon Go format, and will continue to learn which locations and features resonate most with customers as we keep evolving our Amazon Go stores,” a spokesperson said in March.
The closing comes at a time when the City of Seattle and Mayor Bruce Harrell are focused on attracting people and businesses back to downtown Seattle in the wake of the pandemic. Amazon’s large corporate and tech workforce has been key to that recovery, as the company mandated that employees work a minimum of three days a week in the office.
A reader who reached out to GeekWire Tuesday morning said he’d been using the 5th and Marion location off and on since it opened, and more frequently since his downtown office location moved nearby.
“I liked how easy it was, no lines!” the reader, who wished to remain anonymous, said via email. “I was there Friday and there was no notice it was closing, although the shelves did seem a bit bare. I noticed so many of the drinks and chips and snacks racks were empty. I remember saying to myself, ‘Gosh, it looks like they’re going out of business.'”
The reader said the store got “a ton of traffic” in the morning and at lunchtime.
“This morning, it is just gone,” he said. “They took most of the signs down already.”
Amazon Go ushered in the Amazon’s cashierless “Just Walk Out” technology, which relies on an array of cameras and sensors to determine what shoppers are picking up. Shoppers are charged to a credit card used upon entry, and can leave without waiting in a checkout line.
The tech is now used in a number of Amazon’s larger Amazon Fresh grocery stores, two Whole Foods stores, as well as in food stores located inside Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field.
Amazon’s recent move to tighten its physical retail belt comes a year after the tech giant announced it was closing 68 brick-and-mortar stores, including all of its Amazon 4-star, Books, and Pop Up stores. The company said at the time that it planned to focus more on its Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market and Amazon Go grocery and convenience stores.
