Once promising used car chain closes Tampa location, its last store in Florida

CarLotz, the Richmond, Virginia car dealer once perceived as a revolutionary in automobile retailing, has closed all of its East Coast stores, including the one Tampa, about two months after merging with San Francisco e-retailer Shift Technologies.

In statement, Shift says it shut down six stores it inherited from CarLotz “in order to focus on building omnichannel capabilities in its other locations and on the company’s path to profitability.”

The store in Tampa was at 801 Bearss Ave. and “will be assumed” by an unnamed local dealership group. A call to a still active phone number for the Tampa CarLotz store was forwarded to a call center which confirmed the store had closed.