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News & ArtsMonday, February 6, 2012
Tech / Books / Retail Here Comes the Amazon Brick and Mortar Store?
Posted by Paul Constant on Mon, Feb 6, 2012 at 10:20 AM
If this is true, Good E-Reader has run a hell of a scoop:
Amazon sources close to the situation have told us that the company is planning on rolling out a retail store in Seattle within the next few months. This project is a test to gauge the market and see if a chain of stores would be profitable. They intend on going with the small boutique route with the main emphasis on books from their growing line of Amazon Exclusives and selling their e-readers and tablets.
[...]
The store itself is not just selling tangible items like e-readers and tablets but also their books. Amazon recently started their own publishing division and has locked up many indie and prominent figures to write exclusively with the company. This has prompted their rivals such as Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million to publicly proclaim they won’t touch Amazon’s physical books with a ten-foot pole. Amazon launching their own store will give customer a way to physically buy books and also sample ebooks via WIFI when they are in a physical location.
The store is reportedly going to open before Christmas, sometime after Amazon releases the Kindle Fire 2. The rumor suggests that these stores will more closely resemble Apple Stores, rather than Walmarts. This isn't the first time this rumor has come up, but it does seem likely, especially considering the way Amazon's tech side has modeled themselves after Apple in recent years. The problem with the Apple model is that it's hard to lightly stock a bookstore—you try explaining to the angry schmuck who "drove all the way in from Redmond and had to find parking" about why you don't carry the new Glenn Beck book when you do carry Nancy Pearl's Book Lust line. This is going to take some fine-tuned messaging, I think.
1
I try to defend Amazon (when capable of doing so) against the list of complaints from brick & mortar bookstores and ESPECIALLY from the Walmart lobbyists who complain that Amazon's scale of operation isn't "fair" to compete with Walmart's unfair scale of operations, but I have zero interest in going to a b&m Amazon store.
3
The way to get around the angry schmucks is to have a good sales staff and a policy of two day shipping for anything you order in the store. You walk into the store and request the Glenn Beck book. The sales staff apologizes that they don't have it in stock, but you can purchase it now and have it delivered in 2 days to your house. This doesn't really cost Amazon anything, because you can basically just log in to your computer and do that yourself. However to the kind of guy who walked in off the street this is going to be amazing. Think about what happens when you have to special order something at another store. It could be weeks before it comes in, and then you have to go back to the store.
4
It's pretty clear that anyone complaining about book availability would become a perfect segue into talking about Kindle. "Any book available within 60 seconds" probably sounds pretty good to the guy who just spent $2.50 crossing the 520 bridge.
I don't see an Amazon store really being about selling books. It's an opportunity to put a face on the company, offer a smallish, comfortable Starbucks-esqe book store and the ability to check out the latest and greatest kindle stuff. Probably a Kindle genius bar too for fast support service.
I don't see an Amazon store really being about selling books. It's an opportunity to put a face on the company, offer a smallish, comfortable Starbucks-esqe book store and the ability to check out the latest and greatest kindle stuff. Probably a Kindle genius bar too for fast support service.
5
What they should do is set up a retail store filled to the gills with terminal kiosks attached to their warehouses. Lay them out structurally like an Ikea, routing you in a path.
* Front end store/lobby of featured items.
* Ordering plaza -- kiosks, terminals, helpful people helping.
* Leads you to the cafe/more featured stuff.
* You get paged to advance to the pickup section--which leads back to the parking lot.
You get the best of both worlds. If that warehouse doesn't carry the item, it tells you at ordering phase. If you really need it now, it could be useful. You'd need a hell of a warehouse, though, and the labor may be pricey, since it would be essentially a Costco with waiter service.
* Front end store/lobby of featured items.
* Ordering plaza -- kiosks, terminals, helpful people helping.
* Leads you to the cafe/more featured stuff.
* You get paged to advance to the pickup section--which leads back to the parking lot.
You get the best of both worlds. If that warehouse doesn't carry the item, it tells you at ordering phase. If you really need it now, it could be useful. You'd need a hell of a warehouse, though, and the labor may be pricey, since it would be essentially a Costco with waiter service.
6
Local bookstores should rally around an app that discounts books you choose to buy at their stores instead of the Amazon brick & mortar. Walk in, take a picture of your self giving a thumbs down holding up a book in the Amazon store, get %10 off somewhere else that doesn't suck.
7
Yeah sure, Amazon to open small bookstore, hire a few slackers at minimum wage, part time with no befits, and Paul Constant will think Bezos is the second coming of Christ.
9
@3, it's worth pointing out that there's a BIG difference between the major-chain bookstores (Barnes & Noble, the former Borders, and whoever else is left out there) and independent booksellers: every independent bookseller I've lived near in the last 25 years has always been able to special-order most any book I want into the store, usually the same week..
The big chains, on the other hand, always told me they'd be "happy" to special-order for me but it would be 4-6 WEEKS until it arrived—because they always wanted you to buy something in the store, that day.
I love browsing, so indies will always have my business. I'm happy with their selection in-store, their excellent recommendations and friendship, and the nearly instant gratification on special orders when that's necessary.
Indie Store Finder
The big chains, on the other hand, always told me they'd be "happy" to special-order for me but it would be 4-6 WEEKS until it arrived—because they always wanted you to buy something in the store, that day.
I love browsing, so indies will always have my business. I'm happy with their selection in-store, their excellent recommendations and friendship, and the nearly instant gratification on special orders when that's necessary.
Indie Store Finder
10
redmond is twice as diverse as seattle [non-white]. so f-you passive aggressive, white power dicks.
11
Ten years ago, my sales from books I'd edited were always ten to a hundred times higher from brick and mortar stores, than on Amazon.
As was the case for all the published authors I knew.
But that was when Borders was a force.
Have no idea what the situation is now...
As was the case for all the published authors I knew.
But that was when Borders was a force.
Have no idea what the situation is now...
12
@9 Still, having your special order show up at the store with in a week is much different than having the book show up at your house in 2 days.
13
This is a horrible idea. Amazon you have like 4 devices. That is not enough for a store, regardless if you are also going to sell books.
Opening a store in Seattle is pretty gutsy. I can see the local indie bookstores getting together to seriously mess with them.
@6 you have a pretty good idea.
Opening a store in Seattle is pretty gutsy. I can see the local indie bookstores getting together to seriously mess with them.
@6 you have a pretty good idea.
14
Wow. It's like if Highlander starred retailers instead of unconvincingly ethnic immortals. Amazon struck off Borders' head and now it's absorbing its power, only the "power" seems to be a lot of flashy FX and not much actual substance.
15
@12, sure. There's just a cohort of people out there in suburban-sprawl-land who've never gotten a book other than at a major chain or online (or an airport newsstand). If they discover there's an indie nearby, they might find that it's an enjoyable and serviceable distraction compared to the acres of crap (real or virtual) at B&N and Amazon.
16
@13: "This is a horrible idea. Amazon you have like 4 devices. That is not enough for a store, regardless if you are also going to sell books."
? It's a bookstore that sells an ebook reader, PLENTY of books, and has an incredible back-end for rare and low production count books. Why is this a bad, or even very different idea than the current national bookshop chain?
? It's a bookstore that sells an ebook reader, PLENTY of books, and has an incredible back-end for rare and low production count books. Why is this a bad, or even very different idea than the current national bookshop chain?
17
@16 Well, from the many postings on SLOG, it is my understanding that the current national bookshop chains are losing money and being driven out of business. It's a dying business model. Amazon is currently losing money on every Kindle they sell. I fail to see how opening physical stores with the overhead that incurs, to sell limited stock (only titles in Amazon's publishing brandch), and ereaders that you are losing money on is a good idea.
18
@17: "Amazon is currently losing money on every Kindle they sell."
The Kindle hardware *itself* isn't their business model.
The Kindle hardware *itself* isn't their business model.
19
@18 Using the hardware as a loss-leader to build the ebook market is indeed part of their business model. The question is whether that strategy can be sustained. One shot losses like the Lady Gaga album used to promote their cloud music player was a pretty good idea. But ongoing losses, that will be a tougher sell to investors.
21
Will there be print-on-demand? Will there be author readings? Is Seattle the best city for this type of experiment?
"Imagine Amazon buying B&N retail and going brick-and-mortar. Would you shop at Amazon at the mall?
Posted by bedipped on January 5, 2012 at 2:51 PM"
= 1000 Nostrodomonkeys on 1000 typewriters will eventually almost predict something useless to monkeys.
"Imagine Amazon buying B&N retail and going brick-and-mortar. Would you shop at Amazon at the mall?
Posted by bedipped on January 5, 2012 at 2:51 PM"
= 1000 Nostrodomonkeys on 1000 typewriters will eventually almost predict something useless to monkeys.
22
@19: "The question is whether that strategy can be sustained."
Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Gillette seem to be doing okay for themselves.
Any way, it's not a horrible idea, certainly at first and subsequent glances.
Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Gillette seem to be doing okay for themselves.
Any way, it's not a horrible idea, certainly at first and subsequent glances.
23
Just making your business look like an Apple store doesn't automatically bring the success of the Apple store. Has anyone been to the Microsoft store in U-Village? Looks just like the Apple store, except that there are no customers.
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