Book Depository announced on Tuesday that it will be shuttered on April 26 and customers have until noon British Summer Time (7pm Malaysian time) to place orders. Photo: Filepic
Popular online store Book Depository is set to close at the end of April, amid layoffs announced in recent months by parent company Amazon.
The Britain-based bookstore announced on Tuesday that it will be shuttered on April 26 and customers have until noon British Summer Time (7pm Malaysian time) to place orders. It will continue to deliver and provide support for orders until June 23.
Founded in 2004 by Stuart Felton and Andrew Crawford, a former Amazon employee, the store with the vision of providing “all books available to all” by improving selection, access and affordability of books, was acquired by the tech giant in 2011.
This announcement comes after a slew of cutbacks by Amazon, with two rounds of layoffs impacting at least 27,000 people across various divisions - including its devices and books businesses.
Amazon has not shared how many jobs will be lost at Book Depository.
The company announced on March 22 that it was shuttering camera review website DPReview, which it acquired in 2007.
The company is also in the process of closing down its cloud storage service Amazon Drive by the end of 2023.
Last year, it revealed that dozens of physical retail stores in the US and Britain, including some of its brick-and-mortar bookstores and cashierless Amazon Go convenience stores, will close down.
According to trade magazine The Bookseller, vendors and publishing partners received an e-mail about the closure of Book Depository.
Head of vendor management Andy Chart wrote: “Over the coming weeks, we will complete a winding down of the business, including discontinuing our listings as a marketplace seller and closing our website.
“I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you, from everyone at Book Depository and our book-loving customers, for your supportive partnership over the years in helping us to make printed books more accessible to readers around the world.” - The Straits Times/Asia News Network
