Late last year I shared a story about the new Amazon 4-Star store set to open in Des Moines this year, 2022. Fast forward to March 2022, and it appears that the story could be in jeopardy.

Amazon is pulling the plug on physical stores

A new report from CNBC indicates Amazon is rethinking its brick and mortar stores. In fact, the company is actually going in the opposite direction and plans to shut down 68 retail stores. This includes Amazon Books, the 4-Star store Iowa is set to get this year, and it's Pop Up shops. It appears sales have been extremely sluggish and the current stores underperformed in 2021. The first 4-Star Amazon was opened in the fall of 2018 in New York. The theme of the retail store is, all items scored 4 stars, or better, from Amazon users on its digital platform.

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Prime members were also able to save more in-store, and each item features a standard price and a Prime price. As you might imagine, customers were also able to make returns from Amazon at the store, saving them time and postage.

With the news Amazon is going to shut down stores, where does this leave the Des Moines location? Right now, it's still listed as "coming soon" on Amazon's own website.

While it's certainly possible the store will be opened as planned, it could also be that Amazon simply has yet to update its website to reflect the decision to shut stores down, and not add additional locations.

Another element that likely factored into Amazon's selecting the closure route, according to the CNBC article, the growth rate for the company was the slowest for any quarter since 2001.

If you can't shop at an Amazon store, you can always find some real treasures locally on Craigslist...

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Maybe you cruise Craigslist from time to time, or maybe you haven't been on the page in about a decade. Either way, the "free" page is still alive and well. Here are some of the BEST free items you'll find right now on the Eastern Iowa Craigslist pages.

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