Microsoft Stores Never Really Made Sense Anyway
It’s wise for Microsoft to focus on its core strengths — software and services — rather than distract itself with something that is obviously not working.
Remember the last time you were in a Microsoft store? Exactly.
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/BloombergMicrosoft Corp. was never going to rival Apple Inc. in retail, or gain much from it. The coronavirus pandemic provided a good opportunity to face that fact and throw in the towel.
On Friday, the software giant announced it will permanently close all of its Microsoft Store brick-and-mortar locations. The company’s stores, which were primarily based inside malls, were temporarily shuttered in late March in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, Microsoft says it won’t reopen them and will instead invest only in digital offerings to serve its customers – including one-on-one video conferencing customer support, online training and workshops. Shutting down the stores will result in an approximate $450 million pre-tax charge for Microsoft’s current quarter, or five cents a share, the company said.
The move marks the end of a chapter for a strategy that didn’t make much sense in the first place. In 2009, Microsoft started its retail store chain in an obvious quest to follow up on Apple’s retail magic. The company eventually built out some 83 stores in total, compared to Apple’s 510 locations today. But from the beginning it seemed like the Microsoft Store concept was an inferior copycat, using a similar design aesthetic with its long wood product display tables and all glass exteriors, that was never as good as the original. Whenever I visited local malls, the Microsoft Store was always nearly empty compared to the Apple Store, which was regularly packed with customers.