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Amazon to Open First Physical Bookshop in Seattle

By November 3, 2015Bookshops

Over the last few weeks the Internet has been full of the buzz of bookshop revivals. It seems our nostalgia for old and real books, fuelled partly surely by the love spreading across the Internet is creating a resurgence in the popularity of book shops and if you needed any more proof it’s the news that Amazon is opening its first physical book store today in Seattle.

Amazon were accused of being the nail in the coffin for bookshops but it seems that reading has never been so popular and now Amazon Books is taking to the high street with its first physical bookshop.

The store is to open in Seattle’s University Village, today (Tuesday 3rd November) and will be open seven days a week, excluding holidays and Amazon say this isn’t a pop-up shop but a permanent location so it looks like it’s going to be sticking around. It’s not Amazon’s first foray into physical stores, but it is the brands first bookshop and if it’s successful we could see more coming soon, allowing you to browse the shelves and enjoy the benefits that Amazon offers too.

The unusual thing about the bookshop is going to be the way they stock their store as they’ll be relying on Amazon.com data to decide what to keep in stock. This will include customer ratings, sales totals and Goodreads popularity and it could mean that Amazon Books has quite different stock to other bookshops. Whether this will turn out to be a boon for the company who knows, but having access to a huge amount of data has to help give the customer what they are looking for. Another interesting twist is that in store prices will match online prices, and if you’ve ever shopped at Amazon you’ll know how quickly these can change. It’s an interesting concept never replicated on the high street and it’ll take some getting used to for customers.

In addition to selling books, Amazon will be using its store to push its devices too and Kindles, the Echo and Fire TV will be on display in store. Although despite the tech, this is very much a bookstore as the photos show, and must have other independent bookstores in Seattle a little worried.

If you’re not in Seattle it could be that you’ll be getting a real Amazon store near you soon, if not there’s still the option to order from Amazon online.

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