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Microsoft’s “new approach” to retail stores: Closing them forever:
Microsoft's retail stores, like many retailers throughout the nation, have been closed for months due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. If you were hoping to visit one again as restrictions in your state ease up, however, you're out of luck: the Microsoft Store is done for good.
The company announced the closure today, amusingly, as the Microsoft Store taking "a new approach to retail," by which it means "not actually operating retail stores." Although four locations—in London, New York City, Sydney, and Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, campus—will remain open, they will become "experience centers," where one can see, touch, and play with Microsoft products but not actually purchase any.
(Score: 2) by toddestan on Tuesday June 30 2020, @10:41PM
In the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN, the Microsoft store was literally right across from the Apple Store. That they were trying to copy Apple couldn't be more obvious.
It was a long time ago, so I don't recall if they had a service desk. It seemed to mostly stock high end laptops from the likes of Dell and HP (there were distinctly no Thinkpads there - I looked), had a few Windows phones, and various XBox hardware and games which would probably be the main draw if one was a fan of the XBox.
That they are closing the stores down is little surprise to me.