Amazon to Open Hundreds of Physical Bookstores

Amazon never saw a monopoly they didn't like, and now they've nearly killed off most brick and mortar bookstores, it's time to finish the job.

Why would this announcement be coming from "a major mall operator" but unconfirmed by Amazon? I'll believe this when I can walk into one.

My city DOES have a new Amazon storefront now, but it isn't a bookstore - it's a place where you can pick up Amazon packages faster than they'd typically be delivered to your house.

Interesting. Watch this space.

I do feel that if they do do it, it's an example of predatory marketing; the sort where you persistently undercut the competition, to your own apparent detriment (and I know Amazon seem to do OK, but their margins must be terrifyingly small), and then when all the others are dead or dying, you move in and corner the entire market. Then you raise your prices and reduce your product range, and consumers are forced to accept it because they have nowhere else to go.

1. Kill all the brick and mortars. Convince the peoples that they do not want the hustle and bustle of brick and mortar...when they can have shopping in the skivvies instead.
2. Lurk.
3. Build a drone army to throw everyone off the scent.
4. Open brick and mortars and create an advertising campaign that suggests, 'wouldn't it be nice to be back in the heyday of glitz and glamour when we could sashay into brick and mortars and shop while we're seen?!'
5. force the evil evil Wal of Mart out of business.

Those "terrifyingly small" margins are occupied by a vast army of underpaid and exploited "fulfillment workers".

Imagine them, storming the brick and mortar stores, demanding their fair share.

It might help you sleep nights.

I doze off dreaming of the day someone forces them to pay all their taxes.

I hope this happens and one opens near me. It's hard to figure out how I could ever do a bookstore signing/appearance when my book is only on Amazon. It's like "Hey, can I set up in your shop and try to sell my book that's only available with your biggest competitor? You know, the one that's basically putting you out of business?"

With an Amazon location, it would be perfect. But I'm getting ahead of myself obviously.

If this means I can buy books from a physical store that are actually good and not the memoir of some local celebrity or the latest super-popular rehashed dystopia, and that there's a slightly higher chance of self-published books getting bookstore distribution than there was before, I'm happy.

Psychorase said:

If this means I can buy books from a physical store that are actually good and not the memoir of some local celebrity or the latest super-popular rehashed dystopia, and that there's a slightly higher chance of self-published books getting bookstore distribution than there was before, I'm happy.

Click to expand...

Here's an article on their first store. You'll notice the terms "self-published" and "CreateSpace" are nowhere to be found.

I have absolutely no desire to shop at Amazon - online or trudging through their techno stores.

I wonder about the locations - if they want them for drones, I'd think they'd be planning more rural areas, as I can't imagine hundreds of drones flying around major cities all day.

Also wonder if the idea is to try to stave off the resurgence of independent bookstores.

They would be forced to start charging tax for online purchases in the states with brick and mortar stores I believe.

redfalcon said:

They would be forced to start charging tax for online purchases in the states with brick and mortar stores I believe.

Click to expand...

They already charge sales tax.

My biggest problem with Amazon opening that many storefronts is that there's no obvious financial upside for them. Their profitability has always been very low, and brick-and-mortar stores are expensive to set up and get going.

If their pilot store shows promise, that's a different thing. But their pilot store appears to be set up to push their electronics. So I'm not sure Amazon storefronts, should they begin to spread, are likely to be a boon to writers of any stripe.

"The man behind that wild Amazon bookstore rumor will need to take his time pulling his foot out of his mouth."

He is back-pedaling all the way to the start line, sounds like.

Sounds like he had a bad case of wishful thinking. A man with mall-space to rent (I gather that many traditional shopping malls are struggling, between the economy and on-line shopping) is probably desperate to believe that there's a major anchor tenant just around the corner.

Oh well, there goes a promising bit of rant fodder.

I for one don't believe in the drones. It's just a publicity stunt and will not be adopted in a big way because it's a stupid way to deliver things. You still need someone to pilot it, and you end up needing one pilot for every parcel rather than one guy in a van with hundreds. Wages are expensive! Quite apart from the risk of being shot down or stoned by the understandably paranoid, or netted and stolen by the opportunistic, it's just not an economically viable way to do it.

Won't somebody please think of the money?*


*(this is my objection to most conspiracy theories, too, and many spec fic premises)

Tottie Scone said:

I for one don't believe in the drones.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what the drones want you to believe.

"Bad Amazon, trying to bring books to people!" Now, raise your hands, whoever does NOT buy books from Amazon? (As for myself, I buy books EVERYWHERE) *gone to draw a drone landing pad in the garden*

Amazon is into almost anything to make money.

Amz has a reusable space shuttle. It made its first landing recently.

I was startled a week ago when I saw an Amazon grocery delivery truck pull up to my apartment. Seems several of the 200+ dwellers here routinely get their groceries and pharmacy and other items delivered this way.

So don't count out them trying to get into physical bookstores. They may even be DREAMING about hundreds if they can figure out how to avoid all the problems such stores face. But PLANNING on those hundreds? No. Dipping their toes into the market with one or three test bookstores? Yes.

My guess is they'll give up on the idea after a few years. But I've lived to see many ridiculous dreams succeed. I'm certainly not going to count this one out.

I guess there is one plus to living in OK after all. It only took six years to find one.

The drones would have to deal with highway robbery and kidnapping on a regular basis. It simply would not be worth it.