Mall operator: Amazon to open hundreds of bookstores

[GA Russell]

I don't disagree with what you folks have said. But I think a major motivator for Bezos is seeing the success Apple has had with its mall stores.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

I don't disagree with what you folks have said. But I think a major motivator for Bezos is seeing the success Apple has had with its mall stores.

I differ.

I think Amazon is making a trial run at setting up delivery locations for high dollar items that people order through their stores.

As things stand if you order something expensive to be delivered you either run the risk of theft while it sits outside your home or business or you have to make arrangements to get to UPS or the post office while they are open. I think Amazon intends to have some place that is open early in the morning to late at night where you can pick things up.

That was , after all, a key component of Sears when they were growing and profitable. The catalog stores of the nineteenth and early twentieth century are more closer to Amazon.

[Shane R]

Amazon will indeed open up more bookstores, but it also plans to eventually unveil other types of retail stores in addition to bookstores, according to two sources familiar with the plans.

http://recode.net/2016/02/03/meet-th...l-store-plans/

[Xianxia]

second location will be in the San Diego area.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...alifornia.html

The Wednesday statement from GGP comes just as word began circulating that Amazon has posted job openings for several bookstore positions in the San Diego/La Jolla area. The openings were first posted on Tuesday.

According to the job board postings, Amazon is currently looking to fill five positions: assistant store manager, bookseller, books lead, store manager, and device lead. Although the postings say Amazon is looking to hire multiple people to fill these roles, it's unclear whether the company is trying to staff several potential stores, or a single location, with these hires.

[shalym]

...or not. http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/03/no-...00-bookstores/

Yesterday, a report surfaced in the Wall Street Journal claiming that online retail giant Amazon was planning to launch as many as 400 brick-and-mortar bookstores. The report set off a stream of stories about the news; chatter slamming the idea of a company that’s precipitated the collapse of bookstores building them itself; and even some stock movements for Amazon’s competitors.

Just one problem, though: it turns out that it’s not exactly true.

Shari

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Phogg

As things stand if you order something expensive to be delivered you either run the risk of theft while it sits outside your home or business or you have to make arrangements to get to UPS or the post office while they are open. I think Amazon intends to have some place that is open early in the morning to late at night where you can pick things up.

There are already such locations - the "Amazon Locker" service. Eg the petrol (gas) station in my village, which is open from 6am to 11pm every day, offers such a service. Are there no locker location near you?

[DiapDealer]

Gotta arrange convenient, secure, rooftop landing sites for delivery drones somehow.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by shalym

...or not. http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/03/no-...00-bookstores/


Shari

That chart is more than slightly deceptive: the truncated vertical axis exagerates the drop in the convered years and the truncated horizontal axis hides the much bigger drop that came before. And to top it off what they are charting isn't bookstores proper but places that sell books. Much bigger number, what with newstands, drugstore chains, supermarkets, etc.

Try this one:

http://oedb.org/ilibrarian/12-stats-...america-today/

The number of independent bookstores dropped from 2,400 to 1,900 between 2002 and 2011.

A big chunk of the booksellers who have closed their doors have been independent retailers who’ve found it hard to compete with online shops and e-books. The American Booksellers Association, a trade group for book retailers, has seen membership drop by 600 stores since 2002. Two decades ago, there were more than 4,000 independent bookstores in the U.S.

The report is from 2012, so the number of independents went from 4000 around 1992 to 2400 (40% drop) in 2002 due to the rise of the big box stores. After 2002, the biggest drops were in the chain stores and then Borders collapsed (with a big assist from the BPHs).

Very little of those earlier drops had much to do with online sales or ebooks.

There is no shortage of places to buy books (as a category) but the number of places to buy midlist/backlist titles has always been small, with entire swaths of the nation bookstore-less and stuck with whatever rack of bestsellers the jobbers delivered to the newsstands and supermarkets. There is a reason the book clubs were so successful back in the day.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There are already such locations - the "Amazon Locker" service. Eg the petrol (gas) station in my village, which is open from 6am to 11pm every day, offers such a service. Are there no locker location near you?

No.
I am in a little north central Texas town of less than 2000 people.
We do have a post office.

If something comes and I miss it, I will often have to drive to Dennison or Sherman, depending on whether it was FedEx or UPS.

All of those places close early, and I work evenings much of the week.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Phogg

No.
I am in a little north central Texas town of less than 2000 people.
We do have a post office.

I don't see, though, how Amazon's opening B&M stores is likely to change anything for you. Anyone who lives in a large town will already have Amazon Locker locations close to them. Amazon are very unlikely to open a store in your town, don't you think?

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't see, though, how Amazon's opening B&M stores is likely to change anything for you. Anyone who lives in a large town will already have Amazon Locker locations close to them. Amazon are very unlikely to open a store in your town, don't you think?

One over in Sherman would be nice.

[DiapDealer]

The Amazon Locker program addresses concerns of parcels being stolen or customers missing the mail delivery. Amazon Locker program was launched in September 2011 in New York, Seattle, and London. As of 2016, it also has lockers in Austin, Dallas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and various cities in California and Virginia.

Originally Posted by HarryT

Anyone who lives in a large town will already have Amazon Locker locations close to them.

That's not exactly prolific. I'd still probably have about a 3 hour drive to an Amazon Locker from the closest "large" town to me.

I agree, though, they're unlikely to open a B&M store anywhere an Amazon Locker is already scarcity.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's not exactly prolific. I'd still probably have about a 3 hour drive to an Amazon Locker from the closest "large" town to me.

I've just looked at the list, and there seem to be way, way more locker locations in the UK than the US, although the US is so much bigger. I have a dozen of them within 5 miles of my house, and I live in a small village. There are three within the village itself: the petrol station, the post office, and a convenience store. I hadn't realised until now that there were so few in the US.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I've just looked at the list, and there seem to be way, way more locker locations in the UK than the US, although the US is so much bigger. I have a dozen of them within 5 miles of my house, and I live in a small village. There are three within the village itself: the petrol station, the post office, and a convenience store. I hadn't realised until now that there were so few in the US.

I'll be honest: I hadn't even heard of their existence before this thread!

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Phogg

No.
I am in a little north central Texas town of less than 2000 people.
We do have a post office.

If something comes and I miss it, I will often have to drive to Dennison or Sherman, depending on whether it was FedEx or UPS.

All of those places close early, and I work evenings much of the week.

I am in a medium town of 100,000. The town next to us has 100,000. And the region has about 250,000. We have no Amazon lockers. Our FedEx Office is in the next town.
Although with the oil boom that is now busting, the two towns have grown together except one stretch of road that is airport property or borders it.