Microsoft will be closing all of its physical retail stores. The company announced on LinkedIn that while they hope to continue to serve customers, it will not be in their retail locations mostly found in upscale malls. "Our retail team members will continue to serve customers working from Microsoft corporate facilities or remotely and we will continue to develop our diverse team in support of the overall company mission and objectives," said David Porter, corporate VP of Microsoft Store.
While this could be seen as a reaction to the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic and a move to promote social distancing between staff and customers, it can also be seen as Microsoft transitioning out of the consumer space altogether. Microsoft Stores, after all, were the best places to see and buy the latest Surface devices or Xbox game consoles. Surface represents a very small percentage of Microsoft's profits and the company is clearly focused on the cloud, which means that it could very well diminish or even cease production of its hardware devices moving forward. As for the Microsoft Stores, they never had the foot traffic of competitors like the Apple Store, but still served customers well and were highly regarded for the level of service they provided.