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Has anyone been in one?
I went in one. It was bad. Very, very bad.
It was disconcerting, discombobulating... it wasn't, in many ways, a bookstore to me.
It was awful and I don't want to go back.
I went in out of curiosity, and because it was supposed to have the same prices as the site, and I was looking for a book and thought I'd see. I luckily have a nice indie bookstore -- and a B&N crapfest -- nearby, so this was just a curious/cheap thing.
The Amazon store, if you've not been in one, is just... weird, if you like bookstores. It's got very, very few books. It has such a small selection it's as if it's a book display site. Everything is shelved cover-out, and the categories are, uhm, creative. They're mostly Amazon categories. I walked in and the first big shelving unit to the left of the doors had Amazon bestsellers, so it was just a totally random mix of stuff.
Nearly every section is like that -- there's a whole section of 'things Kindle readers read in three days or less.' I do not understand why I want these, specifically, as opposed to any other strange fucking metric, like 'things Kindle readers left on their device for a year before actually reading,' or 'things Kindle readers bought, read, deleted and repurchased a year later when it was free and they'd forgotten they read it.' I mean just...why? It doesn't necessarily imply it's a fabulous book because someone went through it on a device in three days. Maybe it's short, or the person is a fast reader, or the book is simple, or the book is terrible.
Anyway, nearly every category, and thus shelving unit, is therefore a bizarre mix of stuff -- there was every damn thing written by the 'Man Named Ove' guy, plus like, 'Hyperion,' some other older stuff, some stuff looked like it came from summer reading lists, random stuff, a bunch of right-wing radio host generated stuff.
The slim selection and the weird shelving made it super hard to browse or shop for anything, at least how I normally do in a bookstore.
For instance, there was an entire wall of 'if you liked this, try these,' with two suggestions for each 'if you liked' title. They had The Martian, with a Mary Roach as a suggested. I've read both, but seeing them reminded me I'd wanted to check out another Roach, so I asked a worker where her other books might be. They had one, shelved in a specific different section. No others. They had something else that made me wonder if there were any new Barbara Erinreich books -- dunno, they don't stock any. Malcolm Gladwell? They had one, I think, in some random section of some kind of recommendations. Oh, there's the new Sedaris, which reminded me I'd been waiting for a previous one to come out in pb, but they only had the newest one.
It was the most unsatisfying, disconcerting bookstore experience I think I've ever had. I LOVE bookstores. I love wandering around, seeing what's there, picking stuff up, looking at someone's backlist, being reminded of something and going to check that section or author, and you just can't there. There aren't many regular sections (there were some, a fiction, a history, etc., but they were so small and stocked on the basis of Amazon sellers and recommendations or something, thus that odd mix of random) and what there are were just confusing. Authors scattered, backlist noplace, tiny stock.
Haaaaaated it.
Has anyone else been in one?
Oh, and you only get the Amazon price if you're a prime member and use your account to pay. There aren't prices on the shelves, and I knew it was supposed to be discounted so I asked and a worker showed me to a scanner on the wall, and asked if I was a prime member, then extolled the virtues of the membership, because I'd be eligible for the lower price that scanned, as opposed to the cover price, which you pay if you're not a prime member.
I went in one. It was bad. Very, very bad.
It was disconcerting, discombobulating... it wasn't, in many ways, a bookstore to me.
It was awful and I don't want to go back.
I went in out of curiosity, and because it was supposed to have the same prices as the site, and I was looking for a book and thought I'd see. I luckily have a nice indie bookstore -- and a B&N crapfest -- nearby, so this was just a curious/cheap thing.
The Amazon store, if you've not been in one, is just... weird, if you like bookstores. It's got very, very few books. It has such a small selection it's as if it's a book display site. Everything is shelved cover-out, and the categories are, uhm, creative. They're mostly Amazon categories. I walked in and the first big shelving unit to the left of the doors had Amazon bestsellers, so it was just a totally random mix of stuff.
Nearly every section is like that -- there's a whole section of 'things Kindle readers read in three days or less.' I do not understand why I want these, specifically, as opposed to any other strange fucking metric, like 'things Kindle readers left on their device for a year before actually reading,' or 'things Kindle readers bought, read, deleted and repurchased a year later when it was free and they'd forgotten they read it.' I mean just...why? It doesn't necessarily imply it's a fabulous book because someone went through it on a device in three days. Maybe it's short, or the person is a fast reader, or the book is simple, or the book is terrible.
Anyway, nearly every category, and thus shelving unit, is therefore a bizarre mix of stuff -- there was every damn thing written by the 'Man Named Ove' guy, plus like, 'Hyperion,' some other older stuff, some stuff looked like it came from summer reading lists, random stuff, a bunch of right-wing radio host generated stuff.
The slim selection and the weird shelving made it super hard to browse or shop for anything, at least how I normally do in a bookstore.
For instance, there was an entire wall of 'if you liked this, try these,' with two suggestions for each 'if you liked' title. They had The Martian, with a Mary Roach as a suggested. I've read both, but seeing them reminded me I'd wanted to check out another Roach, so I asked a worker where her other books might be. They had one, shelved in a specific different section. No others. They had something else that made me wonder if there were any new Barbara Erinreich books -- dunno, they don't stock any. Malcolm Gladwell? They had one, I think, in some random section of some kind of recommendations. Oh, there's the new Sedaris, which reminded me I'd been waiting for a previous one to come out in pb, but they only had the newest one.
It was the most unsatisfying, disconcerting bookstore experience I think I've ever had. I LOVE bookstores. I love wandering around, seeing what's there, picking stuff up, looking at someone's backlist, being reminded of something and going to check that section or author, and you just can't there. There aren't many regular sections (there were some, a fiction, a history, etc., but they were so small and stocked on the basis of Amazon sellers and recommendations or something, thus that odd mix of random) and what there are were just confusing. Authors scattered, backlist noplace, tiny stock.
Haaaaaated it.
Has anyone else been in one?
Oh, and you only get the Amazon price if you're a prime member and use your account to pay. There aren't prices on the shelves, and I knew it was supposed to be discounted so I asked and a worker showed me to a scanner on the wall, and asked if I was a prime member, then extolled the virtues of the membership, because I'd be eligible for the lower price that scanned, as opposed to the cover price, which you pay if you're not a prime member.