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Amazon Brings Its Physical Bookstore To New York (usatoday.com)

Posted by msmash on from the selling-books-in-2017 dept.

Amazon's first New York City bookstore, Amazon Books, will open to the general public on Thursday morning, marking Amazon's highest-profile move into bricks-and-mortar retail to date. Even as the book shop is a physical bookstore, some "Amazon" elements can be felt. From a report: While some may be excited that this is an "Amazon Store," similar to Apple and Microsoft's respective flagship stores located just blocks away, Amazon says its goal for the new store is the same as it was when the online retail giant first started two decades ago: To sell books. "We have this 20 years of information about books and ratings, and we have millions and millions of customers who are passionate," said Jennifer Cast, vice president of Amazon Books. "It really is a different way to surface great books." The 4,000 square-foot-store features roughly 3,000 books, all with their covers facing out in order to better to "communicate their own essence," Cast says. The company's recommendation system makes a physical appearance in the bookstore through an "if you like this" section, which combines the data Amazon gathers on the books listed with human curators to recommend new books. To someone who walks in to browse, it feels like a high-tech Barnes and Noble.

36 comments

  1. BOOK STOP - IT DIED by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    From Amazon! B&M are waste. Like the poor. Get rid of them!

  2. Jarvis, our store cameras saw you browsing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    books on Ruby on Rails. Did you know that customers like you also bought books by Isaac Asimov?

  3. This is not The Onion? by bensafrickingenius · · Score: 4, Funny

    The website that killed brick-and-mortar bookstores is branching out... into brick-and-mortar bookstores.

    --
    I am not left-handed, either!
    1. Re:This is not The Onion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Real bookstores are better than the web stores ... you actually get to browse the book before buying it.

    2. Re:This is not The Onion? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      What's old becomes new again. I would love to have a bookstore in my neighborhood again. Not sure if I want an Amazon-branded bookstore. Amazon store clerks, assuming that they have actual employees, are probably as clueless as the Amazon recommendation algorithm.

    3. Re:This is not The Onion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Are you seriously that obtuse? The mission of Amazon wasn't to shut down bricks and mortar, it was to shut down other bookstores. This move allows them to kick out the last leg from under the chair but bringing in the smaller market of buyers who still don't buy online.

      The fact that so many here thing the battle is between internet vs storefront businesses is very telling as to why people simply shouldn't take business ideas kicked around on Slashdot seriously.

      I hate to sound too trollish about this but it really floors me that you think there is some kind of paradox here.

    4. Re:This is not The Onion? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Real bookstores are better than the web stores ... you actually get to browse the book before buying it.

      You can browse books online. Go to amazon.com and click on "look inside".

      Amazon.com has millions of books available. This brick&mortar store has 3000. You can't browse a book that isn't stocked.

    5. Re:This is not The Onion? by bensafrickingenius · · Score: 1

      Not paradox. Irony. It's hard to find accurate examples of irony these days, but this is surely one. And I never said it was Amazon's mission/goal/intent. I also didn't make a judgement. Just stated a fact. If it wasn't Amazon that killed brick-and-mortar bookstores it would have been something else, and I wouldn't have ascribed evil intent to that something else, either.

      --
      I am not left-handed, either!
    6. Re:This is not The Onion? by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      Last time I bought a hard cover book from Amazon it came dented and they claimed it wasn't their fault. I would rather be able to inspect something before I buy it thank you very much.

    7. Re:This is not The Onion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The "Look Inside" feature is a poor substitute for actually browsing the book in-store (reading the "Look Inside" foreword and small portions of chapters 1 and 2 is insufficient to know whether a book is good). The publishers/authors hide all the interesting parts of the book when publishing the book preview online, because of piracy. "Is that interesting-sounding chapter actually good?", "does it cover the subject sufficiently?" and other questions can be answered by skimming a book in the store, but can't be done online (again, because of piracy concerns).

      But users are lazy, and, as you mentioned, web stores have a larger selection of books.

    8. Re:This is not The Onion? by gnick · · Score: 1

      Last time I bought a hard cover book from Amazon it came dented and they claimed it wasn't their fault.

      My experience ordering books from Amazon suggests that your dent is atypical. I've made many book orders, both hard-cover and paperback, and so far have received adequately packaged, undamaged books every time. From what I've seen, they do a pretty good job.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
  4. Human psychology? by mykepredko · · Score: 1

    I can't imagine Mr. Bezos doing this without a solid expectation that it will become profitable. Probably a good part of the justification for doing this is the success of the Apple Stores which is feeding the human needs to physically touch and experience the products, talk to experts (to be fair, the Apple Store employees are pretty good - much better than what you get in a Best Buy or other traditional bricks and mortar store), see accessories that go with the things they are buying and seeing others interact with the product.

    All those things makes me feel good as it means that humanity isn't going to (d)evolve into a bunch of zombies staring into a phone - there still is the need to interact with physically with others and the products in their lives. It also means that there is still a market for dusty, paper bound books; Samuel T Cogley would be happy!

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
  5. Barcodes? by DogDude · · Score: 1

    So since they track everything people do online, do they also require a barcode tattoo to enter their stores? Maybe an ear tag? Do they require a DNA sample? I'm sure they could ask for any of these things, and multitudes of brain dead people would do it, if only they could save a buck or two.

    --
    I don't respond to AC's.
    1. Re:Barcodes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Barcode tattoos are so yesterday. They'll use facial recognition track all the books you read, or even glance at. They already use such a system in their physical grocery store to avoid the checkout line.

    2. Re:Barcodes? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Just your debit, credit or phone number.

  6. Heritage of Evil by Seven+Spirals · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Amazon treats workers like garbage. I sympathize with those mistreated workers. I won't buy squat from them. I told their recruiters the same thing. Their kind of business model belongs in a Chinese sweatshop. They aren't welcome here.

    Being an avid reader, I'm also a bit insulted by the way they want to enhance the visual appeal of the store at the expense of having a (much) smaller number of books. Also, a 4000 square foot bookstore is pretty small. Half Price Books in Dallas has a 55,000 square foot retail space with used books you can't even find on Amazon and a huge computer-book section that might even have a programming book on C left over from an era before the cool kids came along. The Tattered Cover in Denver has also been facing-out a lot of books (not all of them) before the news about Amazon's "great idea" ever came along. I don't have any use for a color-by-numbers bookstore made to appeal to people who's imaginations are too challenged to be interested in a book without seeing the cover art.

    1. Re:Heritage of Evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I buy tons of used books on Amazon. I don't know where you've been. And yes, many of them are vintage.

    2. Re:Heritage of Evil by CharlieG · · Score: 1

      The issue in NYC right now is the lack of bookstores
      In the Bronx? NONE. In Queens? One small indy (a 2nd about to open) and one used book store that I know of (not counting College campus 'textbook' stores)
      Manhattan has dozens, particularly if you count "specialty" bookstore - You know, like Fil Caravan Inc. which is just Middle Eastern Culture, or Bauman Rare Books - which carries books from the 15th thru 20th Century (note, not 21st - Bring a card with a LARGE line of credit. I saw one book I'd have loved to read, but the 5 digit price tag said 'ah, no')

      --
      -- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
    3. Re:Heritage of Evil by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Amazon treats workers like garbage.

      The unemployment rate in America is 4.6%, which is "full employment". In Seattle it is 3.1%, and businesses are struggling to find enough workers. So if Amazon employees don't like their jobs, there are plenty of alternatives.

    4. Re:Heritage of Evil by known_coward_69 · · Score: 1

      I'm in Queens and i've seen the B&N stores close. B&N still has stores here but they are in expensive locations and the ones that closed were too close to other stores so what happened was women would drop their kids off to read some books while they went shopping in other stores nearby.

      The new Amazon store is by Penn Station and away from most residential areas and too far from virtually all women's clothing store. It's a nice location to stop by to pay money for a book on the way home.

      B&N even had the nerve to charge something like 30% more for the same book in their store compared to their own website.

    5. Re:Heritage of Evil by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      The unemployment rate in America is 4.6%, which is "full employment". In Seattle it is 3.1%, and businesses are struggling to find enough workers. So if Amazon employees don't like their jobs, there are plenty of alternatives.

      Nice "Alternative Facts." This is the often-parroted line. First and foremost, the availability of other jobs is not an excuse to treat employees like shit. 4.6% nationally and 3.1% in Seattle (numbers that are extremely conservative and obtained from methodologies that are suspect) can not be described a "plenty of alternatives".

      Now go back to handwringing about how your boy Trump is being mistreated by the Fake Press and their Fake News.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    6. Re:Heritage of Evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is ShanghaiBill. He'll respond with an admonition related to the size of your professional network (and how it's the only thing you should ever use if you're over 30).

    7. Re:Heritage of Evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Half Price Books is a great place. We have several in our area. If I want to travel down to Portland we have Powell's bookstores too, which rivals anything Amazon will ever do or has ever done. They have over a million books at their flagship store and one of the largest selections of technical books to peruse though that you've ever seen.

      You want something out of print or put out by a small independent publisher, good luck finding it on Amazon, they think it doesn't exist. I've had to buy several books from specialty shops. One out of England and another direct from the publisher. Not everything is available on Amazon, not even close.

    8. Re:Heritage of Evil by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      Also, a 4000 square foot bookstore is pretty small. Half Price Books in Dallas has a 55,000 square foot retail space with used books you can't even find on Amazon

      Have you ever even been in a modern bookstore? 4000 square foot is on the largish end of the hump the bell curve. 55,000 square feet is way the hell out at the end of tail, a freakish outlier. Of the dozen or so Half Price books I've been in over the years, they all cluster pretty much in 2,000-,3000 square foot range. Not to mention the Half-price you mention is way the hell out in the 'burbs... While Amazon is in Manhattan.
       
      In the same vein, there's plenty of books you can find at Amazon that you won't at Half-Price. There's millions of books out there, and no one source can have them all.
       

      The Tattered Cover in Denver has also been facing-out a lot of books (not all of them) before the news about Amazon's "great idea" ever came along.

      Bookstores have been facing out books ever since I've been going to bookstores - that is, at least since the mid 70's.

    9. Re: Heritage of Evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trump says the 4.x% unemployment number was fake before, but is real now. So hooray for cognitive dissonance, otherwise heads be assploding.

  7. Cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I'd like to speak with a curator about my love for furry, tentacle hentai porn. Got any recommendations?

    1. Re: Cool by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

      They'd probably just point you over to books by Freud

      --
      The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  8. What Barnes Noble was dreaming of becoming by Provocateur · · Score: 2

    Amazon is what Barnes & Noble was dreaming of becoming--a gigantic store with all book covers showing off book cover artwork and lavish reader praises with exclamation points -- before it got eaten.

    --
    WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
    1. Re:What Barnes Noble was dreaming of becoming by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      Amazon is what Barnes & Noble was dreaming of becoming--a gigantic store with all book covers showing off book cover artwork and lavish reader praises with exclamation points -- before it got eaten.

      I was thinking of the same. And it is quite sad. Obviously it is a subjective position from my part. Bizness is bizness.

      But I do tend to love going to B&N (or Books-A-Million or a local library close home that is embedded with a children's museum and local coffee shop.) It is nice to go there, alone, with wife and kids and/or to meet a friend, have coffee and browse/buy books and magazines. Or to listen to a writer, for example.

      It was a good place to start a in-the-middle-of-theday date (when I was single).

      Losing those places, I feel, it's like losing a part of history, tradition or continuity. Perhaps I would stop by an Amazon store (most likely I will if it has a coffee shop.)

    2. Re:What Barnes Noble was dreaming of becoming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Went there with the family for the same reasons, so I feel your pain. If you ever find yourself in Portland, OR there is a ginormous bookstore that stretches for several blocks that has none of the formality of the NY public library but all of the organized chaos of a retail store, shaken and stirred. With a coffee shop, and magazines. And manga.

    3. Re:What Barnes Noble was dreaming of becoming by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      Went there with the family for the same reasons, so I feel your pain. If you ever find yourself in Portland, OR there is a ginormous bookstore that stretches for several blocks that has none of the formality of the NY public library but all of the organized chaos of a retail store, shaken and stirred. With a coffee shop, and magazines. And manga.

      Nice. Thanks for the tip. At some point I'm going to make a trip across the states with my kids. Portland is one of my planned stops.

  9. Trying this in multiple cities by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    Amazon's trying out these brick-and-mortar things in multiple cities. Here's a pretty funny review experience from Chicago:
    http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-amazon-store-chicago-rev-ent-0403-20170401-column.html

    "There are no quirks, no attempts at warmth. There is no store cat. There are no handwritten notes about what the staff loves. The only difference between the children's section and the rest of the store is that the children's section has a rug. It is, in businessspeak, a bricks-and-mortar presence, so unimaginative its facade is brick."

    "what human being-based company would install a Kindle Reader in a book aisle with this encouragement: 'Explore books in this aisle on the Kindle Reader'? You could also explore the books in front of you by picking them up ..."

    1. Re:Trying this in multiple cities by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Geh. I was looking forward to it.

      B&N stores often have a Starbucks inside, so you get to pick out a stack of books, get a coffee, browse whatever while sipping coffee, and often leave with a few picked books (yes, they're often overpriced compared to Amazon [by a few dollars], but then you don't wanna wait a few days for an order).

      I was thinking that was a winning combination, and a place I actually enjoy spending some evenings at.

  10. But what about sales tax? by LyingDown · · Score: 1

    I thought: any online business that has a physical presence in the state must collect sales tax on all purchases. Doesn't this one store force Amazon to collect sales tax on all purchases by NYers?

    1. Re:But what about sales tax? by LyingDown · · Score: 1

      I found a source confirming this:

      https://www.sba.gov/starting-business/learn-about-business-laws/online-business-law/collecting-sales-tax-online

      If your business has a physical presence in a state, such as a store, office or warehouse, you must collect applicable state and local sales tax from your customers. If you do not have a presence in a particular state, you are not required to collect sales taxes.

    2. Re:But what about sales tax? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      They already have a warehouse in NY. They already have to collect. I'm sure when they started out they put their NYC area warehouses in New Jersey to attract tax-free buyers, but the demand is just so high.