The tech giant announced it will close its four Amazon Go locations in San Francisco on April 1, putting an end to the cashless shopping experience that has fueled a ban on cashless brick-and-mortar stores in the city.
After opening the first two Amazon Go stores in 2018, the company was accused of discrimination because the store required both a bank card and a smartphone to shop.
The company is also closing four Amazon Go locations in New York and Seattle, but claims it’s not the end of Amazon Go and new stores will open in the future. “We remain committed to the Amazon Go format, operate more than 20 Amazon Go stores across the US, and will continue to learn which locations and features resonate best with customers as we continue to develop our Amazon Go stores,” an Amazon wrote -Speaker in a statement sent to SFGATE.
The company will work with affected Amazon Go employees to identify new roles within Amazon, such as in fulfillment centers.
Amazon’s other local stores closed in 2022. Two bookstores in San Jose and Walnut Creek and three of the company’s 4-star stores in Berkeley, Corte Madera and Burlingame have all closed.
Just last week, we learned the company put its massive Dogpatch warehouse up for rent in San Francisco, and earlier this year it gave up a 29-acre property in the Bay Area suburb of Milpitas. Amazon also laid off 263 employees at six of its Sunnyvale locations earlier this year.