Amazon started as an online bookseller, and now – 20 years later – it has decided to sell books the old fashioned way. This past week, Amazon opened a bookstore in Seattle called Amazon Books. But not only is it one of Amazon’s very first physical locations, it’s also Amazon’s first physical bookstore. Amazon says that it will not entirely be doing things like a standard store, however; it’ll be counting on Amazon.com data — which includes customer ratings, sales totals, as well as Goodread’s acceptance — to determine which books to stock. Curators would have some say too.
One thing that this Amazon’s first physical bookstore is by all accounts doing differently is putting the majority of its books face out, instead of spine out, and setting up a sign for each of them that contains their Amazon.com rating and a real customer review. In-store costs will all match online costs, as well (which implies they are likely to change while you’re holding them).
Amazon stresses that the in-store price of books could be the same as what you’ll find on line. And for those looking to purchase something electronic rather than a flowery hardback, there’s also the option to check out the company’s range of gadgets. This consists of products such as the Kindle, Echo, Fire tv, and Fire tablet collection.
The books being displayed “face-out,” will allow customers to be able to see the covers rather than just the spine. The motive for this, as Amazon Books vice president Jennifer cast explained, is that the business enterprise desires to show off the authors and their works instead of cramming as many things on a shelf as possible.
The first Amazon Books store is quite large with 5,500 square feet (510 square meters) of retail space and 2,000 square feet (185 square meters) of storage space.
The store is situated in Seattle’s University Village and will be open seven days a week, aside from holidays. Amazon says that this is a lasting location — not just a pop-up shop — which means that Amazon Books should be around for some time to come. And theoretically, we could begin to see more of them.
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