Bose to shut 119 stores in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia.

January 20, 2020

The home of noise cancelling is being cancelled. I thought Blue Monday was bad enough! Bose has recently announced that it will be shutting all of its 119 stores in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. For a full read of the story check out this link: https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/15/21067715/bose-shutting-down-retail-stores-layoffs-north-america-europe-japan-australia Oh boy, where to start on this? I understand why they are doing it but it is a shame to see all of these stores go. Does it have to be all, could it not just be half maybe? I cannot say I blame them from a business point of view. Physical stores cost a lot of money to own/rent and operate. So they are saving millions on this decision. To be honest, this will not be the last big audio company to do the same. Online purchasing is simply to popular nowadays and this trend is not slowing down. Cons

Trying before you do the buying is a thing of the past (Well kind of).
Product support over the phone or e-mail only (Your time down the drain).
Millions of lifelong Bose customers losing a 2nd home (Maybe this is a bit dramatic)
More customers forced to buy online (people want to see a face, well maybe).

Pros

You could still visit a Bose store.... in China or the UAE (Which are right around the corner of course).
Bose saves loads of money and hopefully makes a bunch of new products people will like with the money (Wishful thinking?).
Online retailers are smiling.
Other major brick and mortar stores will start to carry or continue to carry Bose products (This will lessen the blow).

On a whole I was quite shocked to read this at first. However, when you think about it Bose is probably doing the right thing for their business and you cannot blame them for that. There is somewhat of a feeling that a little piece of many peoples audio lives might have just kicked the bucket though. Leave your thoughts.