Amazon opens first physical bookstore in Seattle
It may feel odd associating Amazon with a brick-and-mortar store, but you'll get used to it. The online marketplace will open its first physical outlet at University Village, an open-air shopping center in Seattle, on Tuesday. It won't be selling everything under the sun like its website, though: it's a true-blue bookstore -- though it will carry Kindle e-readers -- just like the thousands of bookstores that shuttered in the past due to the rise in e-book sales. One difference is that most goods inside Amazon Books will be displayed face-out instead of stacked with their spines in view. Also, the company will take advantage of the data it's collected for the past two decades to stock books that have the potential to sell.
According to Seattle Times, the outlet will carry best sellers, as well as books that the state's residents are most likely to buy. In addition, it will be selling titles that are rated highly on the e-retailer's website. If they still end up gathering dust, though, Amazon has the power to send them back to their publishers. Unfortunately, Amazon Books vice president Jennifer Cast couldn't tell the publication whether the company has plans to build more outlets. She said the retailer's focusing on Seattle's bookstore at the moment, but that they're all hoping it's not their only one.