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Amazon Is Opening a New Store That Sells Items From Its Website Rated 4 Stars and Above (cnbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the brick-and-mortar dept.

Amazon is opening a new store in New York City that sells items from its website rated 4 stars or above. The company appears to be making a bigger push into brick-and-mortar retail following its acquisition of Whole Foods and the gradual rollout of its cashier-less convenience stores. CNBC reports: The store is set to open this Thursday in New York's SoHo neighborhood, on 72 Spring Street. The company said Amazon Prime members will pay "the Amazon.com price" when they shop there. An Amazon spokeswoman said the store is permanent, not a pop-up location, as some of its shops -- including one that sold Calvin Klein merchandise in SoHo last year -- have been before.

Amazon said customers will find items like a mini skillet, card games and many of the company's own electronic devices including the Echo Spot and Fire TV Stick, in the new store, called Amazon 4-star. It said it will also include some "Trending Around NYC" items there, which Amazon is able to track on its website. Amazon said digital price tags in the new store will show how much Prime members are saving, the average star rating and how many ratings a product has received, similar to what shoppers can see on the website today.

26 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. More stories coming up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Check your headline /.

  2. Four Star used to mean leaded petrol by xack · · Score: 1

    And there’s probably lead still in some of Amazons “four star products”.

    1. Re:Four Star used to mean leaded petrol by rudy_wayne · · Score: 2

      Lead has no effect if you are already retarded.

    2. Re:Four Star used to mean leaded petrol by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 1

      Which would explain why Trumpsterfire is trying to get restrictions on it and Asbestos loosened.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
  3. That's the sound of fake Amazon Reviews by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yes, that funny sound you hear is the result of tons and tons of fake 4 and 5 star Amazon reviews pumping up the volume on this new store fiasco. Don't delay, buy today!

  4. Well, it passes spell-check. by Drunkulus · · Score: 3, Funny

    A New Story!

  5. "Trending Around NYC" by Zorro · · Score: 1

    So the will be selling Heroin and Needles then.

  6. instability? by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

    So, just to make sure I understand this right, the inventory will be "whatever is popular"? The success of such a location will depend very heavily on square footage. Sure, if I'm explicitly looking for a Fire Stick or Echo speaker, I can be reasonably assured I can find it. Beyond that, I may-or-may-not find what I'm looking for. Will they have bedsheets? Rakes? Ethernet Switches? Clothing? Olive oil? If the store is the size of an average Staples, that might be big enough to have some small departments with the top 100 items kept in stock...but a store filled with impulse buys and no way to know if they you need is actually there...the website seems like a better bet.

  7. And how would this be useful to customers? by carlhaagen · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Amazon have been caught red-handed with systematically faking 4- and 5-star ratings as well as doctoring and cooking the product reviews. You can't trust the 4 and 5 star ratings and reviews of the main Amazon store, so how can you trust a separate store containing only these? Jesus...

    1. Re:And how would this be useful to customers? by Scorch_Mechanic · · Score: 1

      Would you care to qualify your claim with a link to a news story or other investigative work?

      It definitely seems like there's a glut of fake reviews on amazon, but Alex Blumberg's (yes, of This American Life, yes, recipient of a George Polk Award for same) research only turned up bad behavior on the part of sellers. Enabled and allowed by Amazon opening up the market to international sellers yes, but... not Amazon directly.

      I'm not disputing your major point (that 4 and 5 star reviews are untrustworthy), but I do want a citation for your claim that Amazon itself is directly responsible for fake reviews. That Amazon as a company is first party to the creation of fake 4-5 star reviews would be (should be!) a bombshell of a news story.

      --
      You should turn signatures off.
  8. Sharper Image; Spencer's? by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 1

    How come this immediately reminds me of those businesses?

  9. People still buy on amazon? by dk20 · · Score: 2

    With all the "direct from china" sites popping up and offering the same products for a LOT less then amazon sells their "made in china" stuff, people still use amazon?

    1. Re:People still buy on amazon? by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, yea. the shipping from those places is MUCH slower.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    2. Re:People still buy on amazon? by dk20 · · Score: 1

      This is true, and i actually have a PRIME account as well.. but if i dont mind waiting the stuff is a lot less.

      Just one example:
      Knife sharpener stones - $35 on amazon, $20 elsewhere for the same thing? there are some healty markups on amazon for holding stock locally. Lets face it, knife shapening stones are not exactly a "got to have it tomorrow" item are they?

    3. Re:People still buy on amazon? by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 2

      Yea but shipping times from most Chinese sites I've ordered from (even Ali "express") are on the order of 6 weeks. I don't plan that far ahead usually, and I can only imagine the hassle of getting a refund or replacement in that situation.

      I've bought a few things there on a whim, but the quality and arrival times were rather random, and that's before Tariff-Boy got a stiffy for trying to fuck everybody who imported.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    4. Re:People still buy on amazon? by rossz · · Score: 1

      I accidentally ordered something "direct from China" on Amazon. It took bloody forever to get here. About three weeks. I expect stuff within a week. If I need it faster, I buy from a store if possible.

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      -- Will program for bandwidth
  10. I love the irony in it by Tinsoldier314 · · Score: 2

    Amazon shows up on the scene selling nothing but books and many brick and mortar book business struggle to compete. Next, Amazon moves into almost all other types of consumer goods and more brick and mortar stores struggle to compete including some big ones. Now, Amazon is moving more and more towards a brick and mortar presence. The next step is going to be something ridiculous and hilarious, like, they buy up all of the closed Toy R' Us' out there and establish an immediate presence in all 50 states and in some sort of queer circular loop of cosmic irony, all the Prime members start driving to that store to buy shit because it beats waiting one or two days to get it shipped.

    1. Re:I love the irony in it by mentil · · Score: 1

      The big question is why people will go to this Amazon store when they can go to Walmart instead, although I suspect the answer is "there's no Walmart near there."
      The cashierless stores are a bit different as the point is to have better automation and logistics than Walmart. Add in robotic stockers and it won't even be worth hiring the human loss-prevention person.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    2. Re:I love the irony in it by tsqr · · Score: 1

      Now, Amazon is moving more and more towards a brick and mortar presence.

      In my case, having an Amazon brick and mortar store nearby is a don't care. I'm close to a large Best Buy, and they are happy to price-match anything on Amazon that they have in stock. Latest example: a pair of noise-cancelling headphones carrying a Best Buy price tag of $199; they matched Amazon's $118 price without blinking an eye.

    3. Re:I love the irony in it by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      Amazon shows up on the scene selling nothing but books and many brick and mortar book business struggle to compete. Next, Amazon moves into almost all other types of consumer goods and more brick and mortar stores struggle to compete including some big ones. Now, Amazon is moving more and more towards a brick and mortar presence. The next step is going to be something ridiculous and hilarious, like, they buy up all of the closed Toy R' Us' out there and establish an immediate presence in all 50 states and in some sort of queer circular loop of cosmic irony, all the Prime members start driving to that store to buy shit because it beats waiting one or two days to get it shipped.

      If so, great - will love to see how it goes.

      Amazon beat those dinosaurs fair and square, by offering better value and a better overall experience.

      If Amazon now picks up their empty brick and mortar shells and makes something good out of them, then good for Amazon.

  11. Re:4 stars by Streetlight · · Score: 1

    Just what I was thinking. Depends on who writes the reviews/gives stars. The seller of the product? Products they can't get rid of?

    --
    In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
  12. Amazon's Rating System is Broken by rossz · · Score: 2

    Too many false reviews clutter Amazon. I was going to buy an item that wasn't cheap, and started reading the reviews. Lots of five star reviews, with gushing love for the Amazon Partner. Digging down, though, I found some funny stuff. A lot of the five star reviews were all posted on the exact same day. Looking into these accounts, they all reviewed the exact same products on the same days. I decided not to purchase the product from that particular amazon partner. Perhaps I overlooked it, but there didn't seem to be an obvious way to report fake reviews.

    Side note, I already knew the product was top notch. I was concerned about the company selling it. Glad I looked into it.

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    -- Will program for bandwidth
    1. Re:Amazon's Rating System is Broken by quanminoan · · Score: 1

      Yep, it's a big problem. Few things to look out for:

      1) As you mentioned, many same day reviews.
      2) Clicking on reviewer's page shows they post many reviews the same day, or cater towards a specific product or company.
      3) Review text mentions another product. For example sellers will sell a cheap USB stick (perhaps even losing $) to get lots of legit reviews, then change picture and title.
      4) Lots of copy-paste text from bots.

      The most egregious? These same sellers will use the same tactics to down vote competitors. I find myself purchasing at target and walmart or local stores more frequently, but some times resort to buy and return.

    2. Re:Amazon's Rating System is Broken by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I use fakespot.com to check product reviews.

  13. What? by imtilda · · Score: 1

    I think this will just get more fake reviews for bad items.

  14. Re:Stupid reviews by tsqr · · Score: 1

    1 star: UPS driver didn't ring teh doorbell!

    When I'm considering an Amazon purchase, I always look at the 1-star reviews. It's rare to find one that actually is a complaint about a defective product or one that doesn't perform as described. Most of them are of the "these headphones are uncomfortable when I wear them on my ass" variety.