Topline:
Amazon will be shutting its Amazon Style store at the Americana at Brand in Glendale on Thursday, bringing one of its experiments in brick-and-mortar retail to a close.
Why it matters: The store opened just last year, aiming to differentiate itself from other stores by using technology to enhance the shopping experience.
The backstory: The Glendale location is one of two Amazon Style stores in the country. The other store, in Columbia, Ohio, is also closing.
Amazon will be shutting its Amazon Style store at the Americana at Brand in Glendale on Thursday, bringing one of its experiments in brick-and-mortar retail to a close.
The store opened just last year, aiming to differentiate itself from other stores by using technology to enhance the shopping experience. For example, rather than picking items off of a rack, customers scan a QR code, which lets them choose from available sizes and colors.
Customers could either choose to buy the item on the spot or try it on in one of the changing rooms, which could be reserved with the Amazon app.
At the 30,000-square-foot Glendale store, only a few items like candles and T-shirts could be taken to the register without scanning a QR code.
The online retail giant also shuttered 68 of its Amazon Books locations and other stores in the U.S. and U.K. last year. Amazon will continue operating its other physical stores, namely Whole Foods Market, the convenience store chain Amazon Go and the grocery store Amazon Fresh.
At the store on a quiet Wednesday morning at the Americana, a few shoppers filed into the Amazon Style store to see one of the last days of its operation. Some customers were only there to attempt returns, and most left without shopping bags in hand.
"I would come one week and it'd be like, 'Oh, I want this,' and then I'd come back to buy it the next week and it's not there," said shopper Joshua Nozawa, who visited the store on Wednesday.
Customers hoping for blowout deals, like the closing sales at Bed Bath & Beyond earlier this year, will be disappointed. Some clothing was marked down as much as 30%, but most apparel was still sold for the full sticker price.
Amazon Style staff declined to comment on the store's closure. A posting outside the store referred shoppers to the retailer's online store for future purchases.
The Glendale location is one of two Amazon Style stores in the country. The other store, in Columbia, Ohio, is also closing.
The IRL concept debuted to a fair amount of curiosity last year, inspiring feedback about the shopping experience from reviewers online.
But the Guardian perhaps said it best, opining that the Glendale store "feels a bit like what someone in the 1990s might have imagined 'hi-tech' shopping would look like in 2020."
As to how shoppers feel about the closure, Nozawa put it succinctly.
"I guess it's also an Amazon store, so I can get it on Amazon," Nozawa said.