The company announced on Friday that it will be closing all of its retail locations. Microsoft operates 73 brick and mortar locations in the USA.
In its Friday press release the company stated that its online presence of Microsoft, Xbox and Windows attracts more than 1.2 billion people monthly. Going forward, the company said it will focus on its corporate offices and virtually oversee sales, training and technical support.
"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," Microsoft corporate vice president David Porter, said in a statement.
The landlords that will be impacted are primarily Private, Institutional and REITs like Brookfield, Simon, Unibail-Rodamco-Wesfield, Macerich and Nuveen.
This is an interesting comparison to Apple which operates 271 brick and mortar retail locations.
I purchased a Microsoft product recently because they had a retail location and I was able to compare their product to the Apple product. If I had not been able to physically touch the Microsoft product I would have gone with Apple without question. I don't think I'm unique in that aspect. It will be interesting to see if this is a short sided decision on the side of Microsoft or if they are able to revolutionize how tech products are sold.
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