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Samsung’s aspirations to have a network of retail stores like their big rival out in Cupertino may have been dashed if their latest action is any indication. It’s been revealed that the company has shut down their flagship Samsung Experience retail shop in London’s Westfield Stratford City mall, a location where folks could go to learn about and buy the latest Samsung electronics.
That isn’t the only store in the region — Samsung has nine others in the market that they say they’re still fully committed too — but it can’t bode well for the South Korean company to begin shuttering doors on their biggest European locations, especially when they expected to greatly expand in 2015.
There could be any number of reasons for the shop’s closure, and the obvious first target for those of us on the outside looking in would be the troubling sales (or lack thereof) of Samsung’s 2014 smartphone offerings. Namely, the Samsung Galaxy S5 reportedly came well short of Samsung’s sales target for the handset — by a few million units, at least — which showed up in a big way on the company’s quarterly financials reports.
But the truth is we don’t know why, exactly, Samsung decided to close the shop. Could be some weird logistics at play, or perhaps that store just wasn’t seeing the sort of traffic that made it viable to remain in the area (after all, the mall is one of the biggest throughout the UK and Samsung’s spot was reportedly prime real estate for any serious company looking for attention).
Either way, this event isn’t doing anything to help comfort Samsung in times where they could definitely use a lot of it. We’ll have to wait and see if this was either a one-off closure or if they’ll end up doing the same for other locations at some point throughout 2015.
[via The Verge]
Lotta room for speculation here.
I’d rule out a cash crunch & (my) best guess would be the lease is up,or,something along those lines.
A golden opportunity for the competition to move in & have a great PR stunt @ SAMSUNG’s expense.
Apple don’t follow that type of PR model.
How’s that?
Any competitor could move in & the PR/irony/etc… would be self-fulfilling w/o any in-your-face promotion.The media would be all over it………..
Right, but what he’s saying is Apple isn’t classless enough to do that
Yeah, I picked up on that, not gonna get dragged in to a fanboi flame war.
Aww, poor Samsung can’t keep a store open. Guess they spent too much on bribing Best Buy displays.
I think its the new best buy model. Whore yourself out to Samsung and Apple
hahahaha