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from the brick-and-mortar-comes-full-circle dept.
After years of slowly killing off its traditional bookstore competition, Amazon has opened its first physical bookstore at 4601 26th Ave NE, Seattle, WA:
Amazon is opening a bookshop in Seattle in a move it described as a "physical extension" of its business. It will stock the most popular books from Amazon.com, and the prices will be the same as those offered on the website. Customers will also be able to try out Amazon's devices, including the Kindle and its Fire TV. One expert questioned how much impact such a shop would have.
Amazon Books vice-president Jennifer Cast announced the online giant would open its "real, wooden doors" at the Seattle University Village on 3 November. "Amazon Books is a physical extension of Amazon.com. We've applied 20 years of online bookselling experience to build a store that integrates the benefits of offline and online book shopping," she said. The shop will stock 5,000 books in the 5,500-sq-ft (510-sq-m) space, with the majority chosen on the basis of customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, popularity on reader recommendation site Goodreads, and the shop's curators' assessments.
The BBC article shows an online customer review displayed alongside one of the books, along with a shelf featuring books rated "4.8 stars or higher".
From The Seattle Times:
Amazon is betting that the troves of data it generates from shopping patterns on its website will give it advantages in its retail location that other bookstores can't match. It will use data to pick titles that will most appeal to Seattle shoppers.
And that could also solve the business problem that has long plagued other bookstores: unsold books that gather dust on shelves and get sent back to publishers. More than most book retailers, Amazon has deep insight into customer buying habits and can stock its store with titles most likely to move.
The company will stock best-sellers, of course. But it will also include books that get the highest ratings from its customers, including little-known titles. The store will also include such categories as "Most Wished-For Cookbooks." Another section features "Award Winners, 4.5 Stars & Above, Age 6-12."
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Wednesday November 04 2015, @03:04PM
For books only, BN already has a better deal online than Amazon. BN and Amazon almost always have the same online price for a given book. BN has regular coupons. Their free-shipping membership is much cheaper than Prime. (The only time BN loses badly online is when they sometimes randomly and inexplicably consider a book as a "textbook" and you can't use a coupon. They'll do this randomly with obviously non-textbook titles, even with books that are in the stores on the shelf.)
Where BN is losing badly is its stores, because cover price has jumped so dramatically in the past few years and they still sell all books at full cover price with their pathetic 10% in-store discount. That's why the BN store is a showroom for Amazon. Even with a coupon, the price at the store is usually higher than Amazon. If BN wanted to obliterate Amazon, they'd offer a better discount in their stores and cut out the shipping cost. Even if books were slightly more expensive in stores, people would pay the difference to get away from shipping and having to get a package. But BN is often significantly more expensive in stores, enough to make you shop online.
What I see is the price of trade paperbacks jumping from under $15 up to $18 and now routinely over $20. This is to price in a 25-40% online discount. Books suddenly haven't become more expensive. But BN stores are not competitive when, say, a $22 book is under $15 online. I might pay $18 to skip the whole shipping and package pickup thing.
Ironic, then, that BN's one weapon against Amazon is their stores, and they're not using them effectively to compete!
(If you want other things besides books, the calculus is obviously different with Amazon Prime.)
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by Anne Nonymous on Wednesday November 04 2015, @04:37PM
> Even if books were slightly more expensive in stores, people would pay the difference to get away from shipping and having to get a package.
Every time I see a package on my front porch, I figure I just saved a minimum of an hour driving around to find and buy something.
(Score: 2) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Wednesday November 04 2015, @05:00PM
Every time I have to chase down a package some delivery person left at the office, I become willing to pay full cover price for a book. (I actually did that last weekend, because the book I got was so big it wouldn't fit in my mailbox.) But most of the stuff I order isn't for sale in the store. But for a lot of people, deliveries are a big hassle. Not everyone has a front porche. If I had one, it would be in my garage. I wouldn't drive it to the post office. What was I saying?
One time - this is a true story - I had a front porch, but I think this was UPS, I can't remember, it was years ago. The UPS driver must have been a fill-in or something because he left the wrong package at the wrong house all down the street. I got a box of auto parts for someone else. Someone else got my book. A few minutes later, the UPS driver came back and moved the packages to the right address. Then later the woman who lived down the street brought me my package, because she didn't notice the mixup until she got it inside.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday November 04 2015, @10:52PM
Yes, you point out one horror story which, in actuality caused you no inconvenience at all, and use that to condemn all delivery.
Have you had NO SUCCESSFUL DELIVERIES in the intervening years?
Do you seriously think getting in your car and driving across town to pick up every little thing you need or want is better than delivery?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.