November 10, 2015 
Jane 
So the news last week was that Amazon has opened its first brick and mortar bookstore—this one is in Seattle where the company has its headquarters. Twenty years after Amazon began as a website selling books (and before they were pushing lawnmowers and groceries), this could be an exciting beginning for those who love to browse in actual bookstores.
Evidently, most of the books in this new store are displayed cover out which could be seductive to consumers because titles will be easier to find. The other thing that is interesting here is that it was announced that the books will be the same retail price in the store as they are online (where merchandise is usually discounted).
Given the fact that Borders went out several years ago leaving a huge gap in the print bookstore business and that Barnes & Noble seems to be floundering, this is very good news—for consumers and for publishers. Hopefully, this new venture will be so successful that Amazon which, after all, began in the book business will expand their bookstores to other cities in the years ahead. One can only hope.
I’d be curious, though, to know what you think of this new development.
One of the best things about being represented by your company, and also this blog is your positive look at the book industry. When everyone is doomsday, Jane, you often post a thoughtful piece on the possibilities no one else sees. The only other article I bothered to read about this (Huffington Post) was a walk-through of the store and all the things wrong with it, along with how it will ruin the book industry further.
I also like this positive post. So many dwell on the fact that Amazon hurts indie booksellers and shops. With my current lifestyle, I tend to shop online. And, because I have Amazon Prime, Amazon is generally my starting point. But, I often shop the indie retailers who sell through Amazon. In my mind, that\\’s \\”shopping small\\”, yeah? Chances are I wouldn\\’t have known about/bought through those retailers otherwise.I also think people overlook that, without Amazon, many small press and self-published authors would not have a platform to sell books. Indie bookstores generally won\\’t stock them. I think it\\’d be interesting if Amazon had a partnership with indie booksellers. A shelf/section where top self-pubbed authors can be featured at the same price Amazon offers online.
Although their first attempt at an iced 5-shot mocha fell into the Pacific, coffee techs inside the hollow volcano are busy on an improved design as the book world trembles…
My take: more options for readers are A Good Thing; I agree.
Putting on my analyst hat: This is a data collection exercise. The heuristics with a physical store will yield data sets they can correlate to the online world.