I was just there an hour ago to report on it. Any questions?
How are the prices displayed? They should match the .com price, and I assume the .com price can change frequently.
Good point. Maybe there is digital signage like at Kohls?
Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
21–30 of 66 posts
Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
#22I was just there an hour ago to report on it. Any questions?
How are the prices displayed? They should match the .com price, and I assume the .com price can change frequently.
The price isn't displayed - you see the standard/printed price on the book itself (i.e. $25 in usa) and then take it to one of several little stations that tells you the current price on Amazon ($16.94 or whatever, you save X amount). You can also scan barcodes on each little review placard with the app and it'll pull up the price.
Not ideal, I'll allow, but since the prices fluctuate there's not an easy way to do it without looooots of digital signage.
Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
#23Interestingly a lot of data they say they're using is available to any bookstore. I wonder if there are small mom-and-pop chains that use Amazon ratings and sales ranks as cues for their buyer. A tie-in to an e-reader that still makes the bookstore money is a killer feature for me as a reader. Indies still haven't gotten that totally sorted yet, and it keeps me buying more paper books than I'd like, and also buying l…
A friend of mine gave me guff about my kindle -- his parents had a book store, but couldnt keep it open. I started to think about how an indie book store could work in an ereader world; my ideas:
You'd need an ereader with a small nfc reader or barcode scanner. Customers browsing the paper books in store could elect to buy the same book for the ereader in store if they wanted by just scanning the book with their ereader, then taking it up to the front and pressing a 'show cart' feature that would give a barcode for the cashier to scan, bringing up the cart total payable. Upon that payment finishing, the ereader would get a ping from a server and instruct it to download the ebooks just purchased. The store would get a majority of the cut of the vendor side of the sale (if amazon takes 30%, a bookstore would get 25% and the service provider/ebook mfg would get 5$).
This would allow people to support indie stores, continue to buy both ebooks and regular books, and do them both at the same time.
It's not a complete or foolproof plan, just an idea I had that could help batter down the hatches.
Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
#24Anyone think there is a future where 500 foldable e-ink screens can finally replace the demand for a hard cover book?
Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
#25Anyone think there is a future where 500 foldable e-ink screens can finally replace the demand for a hard cover book?
Nope. Real-world share-ability and resale is a pretty unsolved problem...
Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
#26I'm very curious what Amazon is trying to do here. Can the business plan pencil out by selling enough additional goods to pay the store's operating expenses? Is the real goal to expose more people to the Kindle who wouldn't otherwise see one, i.e. it's a Trojan?
In 2013, Amazon had 65% market share of online book sales [1]. It wouldn't surprise me if this was 20% higher now.
When customers walk into a Barnes and Noble (or any bookstore) and browse books but don't buy (for example, because they found a cheaper price online), they are most likely to end up on Amazon to complete the purchase. B&N did the work but Amazon got the money.
Amazon doesn't have that problem. They don't need to sell books in the store to "pay the store's operating expense" - they just need people to come in and browse.
Currently, Amazon doesn't compete for a high percentage of books (50%) moved through physical stores [2]. They are in the enviable position of being able to create stores that don't leak sales to competitors. This is the final nail in B&N's coffin.
[1] http://www.thewire.com/business/2014/05/amazon-has-basically...
[2] http://www.dailydot.com/business/ebook-sales-2013-revenue/
Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
#27Anyone think there is a future where 500 foldable e-ink screens can finally replace the demand for a hard cover book?
Nope. Real-world share-ability and resale is a pretty unsolved problem...
The latter problem seems to be solving itself.
Used bookshops are closing and selling used books online is getting less and less profitable.
Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
#28I'm very curious what Amazon is trying to do here. Can the business plan pencil out by selling enough additional goods to pay the store's operating expenses? Is the real goal to expose more people to the Kindle who wouldn't otherwise see one, i.e. it's a Trojan?
Where I live book shops have tended to become more like gift shops. They sell something that is an expensive luxury that you buy because it is a nice thing. Amazon have a huge advantage in this by giving the buyer an assurance that the present will be well received. You can buy a book for a 5 year old relative without knowing what a typical 5 year old actually likes. This could easily extend to none-book purchases (p…
> Amazon have a huge advantage in this by giving the buyer an assurance that the present will be well received. You can buy a book for a 5 year old relative without knowing what a typical 5 year old actually likes.
Individual variation is significant enough that I don't think that Amazon's data-based understanding of (say) typical 5-year-olds does much to provide assurance that a gift is right for a particular 5-year-old.
If the particular recipient actually is an active Amazon purchaser -- especially with a strong rating history -- you might get some assurance, but that's a different thing (and more applicable to online than in-store sales, probably, anyway.)
Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
#29I'm very curious what Amazon is trying to do here. Can the business plan pencil out by selling enough additional goods to pay the store's operating expenses? Is the real goal to expose more people to the Kindle who wouldn't otherwise see one, i.e. it's a Trojan?
The same way Amazon started by offering just books on its online store and then expanding, they are probably now doing the reverse with a physical book store..
Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore
#30I'm very curious what Amazon is trying to do here. Can the business plan pencil out by selling enough additional goods to pay the store's operating expenses? Is the real goal to expose more people to the Kindle who wouldn't otherwise see one, i.e. it's a Trojan?
In 2013, Amazon had 65% market share of online book sales [1]. It wouldn't surprise me if this was 20% higher now. When customers walk into a Barnes and Noble (or any bookstore) and browse books but don't buy (for example, because they found a cheaper price online), they are most likely to end up on Amazon to complete the purchase. B&N did the work but Amazon got the money. Amazon doesn't have that problem. They don'…
This is an interesting thesis... which is that brick and mortar can work if you also own the online alternative.
I never bought books and B&N because I knew I could get the book cheaper at Amazon. The same with toys when I used to shop at ToysRUs. But those are both goods that I'd actually like to buy on the spot. If I know that the price in the store is the same as online, I'd probably do a lot of in store purchases.
And since I'm a Prime customer, they save 2-day shipping cost to me (I'll continue to be a Prime customer).