Microsoft’s decade-long experiment with brick and mortar has come to an end. In a post regarding its “new approach to retail,” the company revealed that it would be shuttering all of its physical locations, both in the US (107) and overseas (10). While the flagship stores in London, NYC, Sydney, and Redmond won’t be demolished, they’ll be turned into “Experience Centers” that no longer sell products.
Naturally, there’s a bit of PR spin in Microsoft’s prepared statement, but the stores are presumably being terminated due to a severe lack of foot traffic. The good news is that the majority of employees get to keep their jobs, as retail team members are being transitioned to online support roles, which will be performed either remotely or from corporate locations.
“Our sales have grown online as our product portfolio has evolved to largely digital offerings, and our talented team has proven success serving customers beyond any physical location,” said Microsoft Corporate Vice President David Porter. “We are grateful to our Microsoft Store customers and we look forward to continuing to serve them online and with our retail sales team at Microsoft corporate locations.”
“We deliberately built teams with unique backgrounds and skills that could serve customers from anywhere. The evolution of our workforce ensured we could continue to serve customers of all sizes when they needed us most, working remotely these last months,” added Porter. “Speaking over 120 languages, their diversity reflects the many communities we serve. Our commitment to growing and developing careers from this talent pool is stronger than ever.”