Quote:
Originally Posted by frahse
I don't see the point. Is this going to increase their bottom line by adding the expense of "real" stores?
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You haven't seen any of the dozens of explanations floating around from the tea leaf readers?
Nobody but Bezos know for sure but there are a few clues:
- Amazon gadgets are front and center, literally. Most of their stores have a fairly large displays with Kindles, Tablets, Echoes, and FireTVs all set up for fondling.
- Gadgets and accessories sell for online prices to everybody but books sell for list, unless you're a member of Prime, in which case you get online pricing.
- No price tags. You're expected to use your phone (or one of the onsite browing stations) to get up-to-the minute price reads.
- No cash or receipts. Prime members enter their account email/phone number and password. Non-prime buyers enter their CC info.
(Getting ideas, yet?)
- Books are featured cover out, with online star rating info, and choice quotes from online reviews. Featured book selection varies by locality based on local buying preference data culled from the online store.
- all featured books are rated at 4 stars or better with hundreds of reviews, except bestsellers and fresh releases. Featured books do *not* have to be top sellers. They have made a point in some interviews that some books are featured because of reader reception rather than total sales. (One specific book singled out was ranked 65000.)
- unlike every other brick and mortar store, AmazonBooks features Indie books *and* APub titles that meet the store's criteria.
As to why...
Well, as I said, every pundit out there is offering at least two different rationales for why Amazon is doing B&M.
My own take is that if b&N and the ABA weren't organizing a boycott of APub titles there probably wouldn't be any AmazonBooks stores. But since they are, and Amazon is building local depots in every state so they are now going to be collecting sales tax anyway, they probably figured they might as well get started building out a chain of stores for when B&N goes over the edge.
Dunno is you go back far enough to remember before the multinationals took over NYC publishing but back in those days Doubleday had a decent sized chain on bookstores. The one I went to in DC was elegant in forest green and dimly lit with an intentional 19th century victorian vibe. The AmazonBooks stores in the videos and walkthrough articles (they haven't hit my neighborhood yet) all are elegant and brightly lit projecting a 21st century techie vibe.
https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=mobN8bUAgfE
Think of them as brand-building Booktiques.