https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/04/amazon-to-close-book-depository-online-shop

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Last orders ... the last date that Book Depository customers can place
orders is 26 April.
[ ]
Last orders ... the last date that Book Depository customers can place
orders is 26 April. Photograph: Bongkarn Thanyakij/Getty Images/EyeEm
Last orders ... the last date that Book Depository customers can place
orders is 26 April. Photograph: Bongkarn Thanyakij/Getty Images/EyeEm
Books

Amazon to close Book Depository online shop

Gloucester-based bookseller bought by the retail giant in 2011 will
shut at the end of April


Lucy Knight

Tue 4 Apr 2023 07.07 EDTLast modified on Tue 4 Apr 2023 18.45 EDT

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The online shop Book Depository is due to close at the end of April,
vendors and publishing partners have been told. This comes after the
bookseller's parent company Amazon announced it had decided to
"eliminate" a number of positions across its Devices and Books
businesses.

The Gloucester-based bookseller was founded in 2004 by Stuart Felton
and Andrew Crawford, a former Amazon employee, with the mantra of
"selling 'less of more' rather than 'more of less'". It aimed to sell
6m titles covering a wide variety of genres and topics, as opposed to
focusing solely on bestsellers. While originally a rival to Amazon,
it was acquired by the retail giant in 2011, causing some in the
publishing industry to worry about the tightening of the American
company's "stranglehold" on the UK book trade.

According to the trade magazine the Bookseller, an email sent out to
vendors and publishing partners explained that Book Depository will
be closing, and that the last date customers will be able to place
orders is 26 April. "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," Andy Chart, head of
vendor management, wrote.

"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," he concluded.

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This move is part of wider cutbacks at Amazon outlined in a blog post
in January. "In November, we communicated the hard decision to
eliminate a number of positions across our Devices and Books
businesses," as a result of the "uncertain economy," CEO Andy Jassy
wrote. "I also shared that we weren't done with our annual planning
process and that I expected there would be more role reductions in
early 2023." In total, the company was planning to make just over
18,000 people redundant, Jassy added. Amazon has not shared how many
jobs will be lost specifically at Book Depository.

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