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Originally Posted by some call me tim
I'm intrigued by their approach, it sounds like the first thing that's been differently in terms of bookselling since stores started incorporating cafes.
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What intrigues me is that they are essentially counterprogramming their online business model. The online model is to carry every book they possibly can and they do it so well that they have trained a good chunk of the market to expect to find all available books at Amazon.com, if not new then at least used.
With their B&M store they are effectively saying that nobody can possibly carry all books at B&M so they're not even going to pretend to. Instead, they will simply carry books they think their local shoppers will like and see if the shoppers agree and buy a lot of those books. And, if they truly mean what they said about "bestsellers" and actually pull them if they don't live up to the four stars criterion that can really change the game for the big publishers that live and die by the bestseller.
As I pointed out above, Amazon's Imprints are currently a lot closer to the mythical publisher of old than the BPHs and now they are building a bookstore that aspires to provide the mythical shopping experience that never quite existed in the old days. It is like they are challenging the industry to live up to its own myths.
If they succeed, maybe theyll make a movie about it with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
