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Microsoft to permanently close all physical retail stores

d-kressjr
By d-kressjr
in Tech News
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Summary

Microsoft announces Friday morning that it intend to close all of it's physical retail locations. The exception is their stores on its Redmond campus, New York City, Sydney, and London. The company stated that it plans to turn those retail locations into "experience centers." Microsoft has not announces plans as to what those "experience centers" will look like except for the fact that they will not sell products. Microsoft said in their press release that the plans to do this were already in place to do this for next year, the COVID-19 pandemic just accelerated those plans. A source from Microsoft says that no layoffs will result from this decision as many off their retail staffs jobs were already shifted to remote jobs once the pandemic started. It seems like this announcement is effective immediately and that Microsoft does not plan to reopen any store after the pandemic settles.

 

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(100% credit goes to @GoodBytes for the idea of embedding this image for people who might not know what Microsoft's retail stores looked like. Ty!)

 

Quotes

Quote

(“Microsoft”) today announced a strategic change in its retail operations, including closing Microsoft Store physical locations. The company’s retail team members will continue to serve customers from Microsoft corporate facilities and remotely providing sales, training, and support. Microsoft will continue to invest in its digital storefronts on Microsoft.com, and stores in Xbox and Windows, reaching more than 1.2 billion people every month in 190 markets. The company will also reimagine spaces that serve all customers, including operating Microsoft Experience Centers in London, NYC, Sydney, and Redmond campus locations. The closing of Microsoft Store physical locations will result in a pre-tax charge of approximately $450M, or $0.05 per share, to be recorded in the current quarter ending June 30, 2020. The charge includes primarily asset write-offs and impairments.

 

Since the Microsoft Store locations closed in late March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the retail  team has helped small businesses and education customers digitally transform; virtually trained hundreds of thousands of enterprise and education customers on remote work and learning software; and helped customers with support calls. The team supported communities by hosting more than 14,000 online workshops and summer camps and more than 3,000 virtual graduations.

- The Verge

Quote

The company tells The Verge that no layoffs will result from today’s decision. “Our commitment to growing and developing careers from this diverse talent pool is stronger than ever,” Microsoft Store VP David Porter said in a LinkedIn post on the move.

A source with knowledge of Microsoft’s retail operations told The Verge that this plan was originally in place for next year, but was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft’s Xbox Series X is launching this holiday, so it makes sense that the company had at least initially planned for the stores to make it that far. The dual-screen Surface Neo device that was also going to ship during the holidays has been delayed, though the Surface Duo is apparently still on track for this year. Still, if you were hoping your local Microsoft Store would be a surefire bet for a new Xbox, you’ll have to look elsewhere

- The Verge

My thoughts

 

It hasn't been a great To be honest, I'm not really surprised by this announcement. I've always wondered how successful their retail stores actually are every time I walked by one of them. The main reason is because every Microsoft retail store I walked by was planted directly across from an Apple retail location. Every time I looked at the crowd of people in each store, the crowd in an Apple store dwarfed the crowd in the Microsoft store by comparison. For anyone who had shopped or walked around in both an Apple and Microsoft retail location, it is obvious that Microsoft was trying to create a store front and shopping experience similar to Apple's. I don't know if there was any strategy that would have made their stores successful considering they were putting themselves against Apple's retail presence, but Microsoft's store's "showrooms" always felt more disorganized and jumbled compared to (admittedly) Apple's well organized stores. To me, I saw this announcement coming eventually and I am curious to see what these "experience centers" will look like.

 

Sources

https://news.microsoft.com/2020/06/26/microsoft-store-announces-new-approach-to-retail/

https://www.theverge.com/2020/6/26/21297400/microsoft-retail-stores-closing-cities-open

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/26/microsoft-to-close-retail-stores.html

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That’s a pity. I bought my current XPS laptop through a Microsoft store. Their return policy was top notch.

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Honestly it does sorta suck but it does make sense and I can see this as what the future will be like. You walk into a store try on the clothes or products and then go to the cashier or most likely kiosk. Select what you want to buy and it'll be delivered in 2 hours to your house. I'm glad they didn't close them completely as MS stores are some of the few places you can actually try a couple VR headsets for free on a PC that can handle it

▓ƆԀ▓ S▓₱▓Ɇ▓c▓s▓: i7 6ʇɥפᴉƎ00K (4.4ghz), Asus DeLuxe X99A II, GT҉X҉1҉0҉8҉0 Zotac Amp ExTrꍟꎭe),Si6F4Gb D???????r PlatinUm, EVGA G2 Sǝʌǝᘉ5ᙣᙍᖇᓎᙎᗅᖶt, Phanteks Enthoo Primo, 3TB WD Black, 500gb 850 Evo, H100iGeeTeeX, Windows 10, K70 R̸̢̡̭͍͕̱̭̟̩̀̀̃́̃͒̈́̈́͑̑́̆͘͜ͅG̶̦̬͊́B̸͈̝̖͗̈́, G502, HyperX Cloud 2s, Asus MX34. פN∩SW∀S 960 EVO

Just keeping this here as a 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I wonder if that includes the BestBuy >Microsoft< sections. 
I remember mine having a dedicated Microsoft employee there.

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A big problem, in my opinion, is that consumers are so used to go to big stores like BestBuy to buy computers. It doesn't cross their mind to go to the Microsoft store.

And most people don't know that the PC sold there, despite the same price as big stores, are debloated out of the box. You don't need to do the obligatory "system re-install as it is faster than to deal with the OS update and debloating". Let alone go there for getting proper support for your systems, beside Surface line. And not face the minimum wage BestBuy employee who is forced to follow a flawed book, which aims to not help the consumer, but rather attempt at making money with false fixes and ludicrous "diagnostic" fees.

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Just now, givingtnt said:

I wonder if that includes the BestBuy >Microsoft< sections. 
I remember mine having a dedicated Microsoft employee there.

Those will remain

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1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

A big problem, in my opinion, is that consumers are so used to go to big stores like BestBuy to buy computers. It doesn't cross their mind to go to the Microsoft store.

And most people don't know that the PC sold there, despite the same price as big stores, are debloated out of the box. You don't need to do the obligatory "system re-install as it is faster than to deal with the OS update and debloating". Let alone go there for getting proper support for your systems, beside Surface line. And not face the minimum wage BestBuy employee who is forced to follow a flawed book, which aims to not help the consumer, but rather attempt at making money with false fixes and ludicrous "diagnostic" fees.

I totally agree with this point. The windows platform is used and sold by hundreds of different manufactures that, imo, most consumers see it as nonsensical to go to Microsoft's storefront to see only a small fraction of the variation of windows products. Most consumers no that all Apple's software are developed into products made exclusively by them, so it makes more sense for a consumer to visit an Apple store because they'll know that they aren't missing out on anything.

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The Microsoft retail store at my local mall saw a boost in customers when they strategically moved their gaming section to the front of the store. Xbox consoles and VR headsets were shown being in-use behind the front glass. Shame, I liked going in there more than the Apple store that was on the floor below it. 

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1 minute ago, PhantomJaguar77 said:

The Microsoft retail store at my local mall saw a boost in customers when they strategically moved their gaming section to the front of the store. Xbox consoles and VR headsets were shown being in-use behind the front glass. Shame, I liked going in there more than the Apple store that was on the floor below it. 

Same, my local Microsoft store shifted VR and Xbox content right in front of the glass. The Microsoft store is where I first demoed the HTC Vive back when it came out before I ended up buying one. 

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1 minute ago, d-kressjr said:

Same, my local Microsoft store shifted VR and Xbox content right in front of the glass. The Microsoft store is where I first demoed the HTC Vive back when it came out before I ended up buying one. 

It was the only place where I also tried out using some Razer laptop models.

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Basically they'll have showrooms with no inventory of products to buy right away. You come there to check things out and see them in person and then you order them online. Or even there in the showroom, but then gets delivered to you separately at later time.

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3 minutes ago, MyName13 said:

"were already in place to do this for xxx, the COVID-19 pandemic just accelerated those plans"

How many times have we heard this?

xxx huh 🤔. Never knew Microsoft also had that kind of division. 

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Never been to a Microsoft store. Closest one to me was about 40 mins away, pass. Sucks folks are gonna lose their jobs. Hope for a speedy recovery in that area. It's already rough outchea in these streets, smh.

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8 minutes ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

xxx huh 🤔. Never knew Microsoft also had that kind of division. 

🤣

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1 hour ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Microsoft had stores?

In major cities. I went to the Microsoft Store once, and it's such a blatant Apple store knock off. The mall also has a Samsung store, and wouldn't you know it, all the mobile phone stores also have the exact same look and feel.

 

But I feel that the MS physical store was a mistake. Apple sells a lot of hardware, and the fact that line ups go around the block for people to just pick up their pre-orders tells you why the Apple store is important in distribution (the store gets the phones before "ship to my home" orders get to your home.)  Microsoft doesn't sell anything other than the Xbox games console that warrants a store, and games are largely online-only, only people with bad internet want the physical discs anymore, and those people aren't living in the cities the Microsoft stores exist in. So it makes sense to just close them.

 

With that said, Nintendo also has perpetual kiosk "stores" in the same mall, and they're mostly to show off new Nintendo merchandise and they do have some switch systems there. There's nothing stopping Microsoft from scaling back to a similar thing. Sony used to have a store in the mall at one time, but it was like 80% TV's, with one 3' displaycase with a PS2 in it.

 

If I had to make a suggestion about the whole thing, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Apple, Google, etc who produce game console products should just commit to a "game experience" arcade model where dedicated space in shopping malls or second-floor commercial space in towers are used to have same-screen competitive spaces. As of right now, the only "arcade" experience games that you can still find are racing games, and imported DDR arcade cabinets. So if they really want to sell us on VR, this is how they can do it.

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1 hour ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Microsoft had stores?

My first thought when reading the title haha 

 

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1 hour ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Microsoft had stores?

 

20 minutes ago, Stormseeker9 said:

My first thought when reading the title haha 

Yeah, they're kinda like apple stores, but with xboxs, gaming pcs, vr sets, and gaming laptops ( at least the one that I have seen ). And the systems usually have games on them so essentially its just a place where kids play video games.  Also they let you try out VR and stuff too

 

26 minutes ago, Kisai said:

If I had to make a suggestion about the whole thing, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Apple, Google, etc who produce game console products should just commit to a "game experience" arcade model where dedicated space in shopping malls or second-floor commercial space in towers are used to have same-screen competitive spaces. As of right now, the only "arcade" experience games that you can still find are racing games, and imported DDR arcade cabinets. So if they really want to sell us on VR, this is how they can do it.

The one I go to has that. Like a bunch of VR games and stuff. I think theres also a room where people have game sessions or something, but its only on a few days and I have never seen it in person. Also a bunch of people were playing fortnite on the xbox they had there ( this was a while back when fortnite was actually popular )

 

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Posted

I don't know why but I thought these were already gone a while back?

 

I'm what I'd describe as a regular guy type shopper so none of these types of devices appeal to me at all anyway.

When I saw stuff online I didn't know what to think but when I would actually see them at the best buy.

They turned me off big time.

Same with the mac books.

 

I just don't like the ultra thin stuff at all and when I see the price tag on some stuff.

I'm like man, someone must be crazy. 🤪 

 

Heck I wish my iPad was four times thicker with a TB of storage base price lol and I didn't even pay hardly nothing for it by comparison.

 

If they ever want people like me to lay down mac book level of money.

They better start making stuff way more thicker.😄 

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Posted

If you read some of the other responses here it becomes clear why the Microsoft stores failed. Their purpose was not to serve customers but just to sell and compete with Apple. IMO Microsoft just does not care about the consumer products and chases profits in the cloud and enterprise space.

 

The Microsoft stores I have been to didn’t offer on-site repairs or replacements; they also didn’t host tutorials or other kinds of events. The showrooms were poorly managed in some high traffic areas. I remember my dad really wanted to get a Surface Book, the very first one that came out. So we went to the store to check it out. You won’t believe just how bad the experience was. We encountered a very aggressive rep who wouldn’t leave us alone. The rep tried to demo devices but they wouldn’t work; he tried to open the start menu using the touchscreen and it didn’t register; this happened on 3 devices. There was another smaller store where I bought my Surface laptop from, they were great but without on-site repairs or service, there’s no point in going back to there again. Apple also hosts plenty of “educational” seminars and events; obviously it’s a way for them to get people buy their products but it’s subtle.

 

Again if the purpose was to help serve the Surface and Xbox customers, they would have set up their stores differently.

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Posted

I bought my Vive at a Microsoft store, they always had a nice setup with a vr or xb1 demo. I assume that's all people really went into the stores for and not to buy things, so they're doing 100% demos now?

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Posted

A bit sad since they were usually nice stores, but not completely surprising.

 

Microsoft's perpetual problem is that it's not really an aspirational brand, and that it can't be a one-stop shop like Apple.  Most people get Windows PCs because they're the most affordable options, or because they need one to run app X or game Y.  It's not going to have an extensive catalog of PCs or even Xbox games (not that you need to get physical copies anyway).  You're really better off going to the local Best Buy or ordering online.

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Never been in a Microsoft store, but I've walked by one several times in Denver.  It looked nice and not nearly as pointless as those physical Amazon stores.  I'm gonna miss it...

Sorry for the mess!  My laptop just went ROG!

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Posted
2 hours ago, Jet_ski said:

Apple Fanboi mumble

Just had a quick glance at your comments on other threads since your impression of MS stores seems to be a lone ranger compared to others. Lo and behold almost all Apple and praising/recommending them 🤣

 

Anyway back to the thread.

 

Can't say I've ever actually seen an MS Store in the UK, although I buy all my tech online anyway so probably missed them. No big loss except to people who prefer to get hands on with products before they buy them, but the follow up stores sound like they'll be doing solely this anyway. It's effectively just removing inventory from brick and mortar stores to warehouses to purchase later.

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