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Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

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Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#51

Post by nbarAKL »

theseoafs wrote: post #44
whoiskevin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the library but the book store...well not if you are then taking home only what you purchase from Amazon instead of the place you just comfortably browsed inventory. I find it hard to understand the logic of using a place of business in order to take advantage and not purchase from them. People justify it in many ways but none of those justifications stands up to examination.

There's nothing to justify. They let you freely browse their inventory, and you browsed the inventory.

With the expectation that if you like their inventory, you'll pay for the convenience and service in store. If you receive a benefit from that convenience and service, there's no way to contribute to the existence of the store outside of purchasing their product (I suppose you could donate straight to the owner, but that's messy).

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#52

Post by UnoriginalGuy »

vnorby wrote: post #26
thinkling wrote: post #3

I'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'…

Seems like retailers either accept this, or fail to.

For example, Best Buy, they knew people were coming in to sample goods and then buying it online. Their solution was simply to agree to price match Amazon, and that appears to have been quite successful, I know I have purchased things at physical BB instead of Amazon due to the policy.

They still make margins on their in-house warranties, and any goods sold not priced matched. I don't legitimately know if they lose money on some goods price matched on Amazon, or if they can pass some of it on to the manufacturer.

Just this week we were in Barnes and Noble, and we skipped buying things because they were cheaper on Amazon. It is sad but true.

PS - We did buy stuff on sale, and get coffee/cake at their little coffee shop, so we aren't complete monsters.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#53

Post by dingaling »

janesvilleseo wrote: post #43
devindotcom wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This seems so backwards. Amazon lead on cheap prices. But this retail store only displays book/listed price. Which are higher. The only way to get the real price is to manually scan each one. Why? What am I missing?

> Amazon lead on cheap prices.

Perhaps for the mass-market titles but once you start pushing into the long-tail then RRP becomes much more common.

Couple of random examples from Amazon UK this morning:

You Save: £0.72 (2%) You Save: £0.55 (2%)

I doubt many people will see savings like that as incentives. Rather, Amazon's advantage is that they actually offer such books for sale without the hassles of persuading a clerk to order a single copy for you, assuming their supplier carries it.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#54

Post by meric »

vnorby wrote: post #26
thinkling wrote: post #3

I'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'…

Ironic, I browse on Amazon and buy on bookdepository.com for the free delivery.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#55

Post by tempestn »

amrrs wrote: post #45
teirce wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to hold this viewpoint until I watched a video (I can't seem to find it now) that made a pretty good point. The point was something along the following: "I like book stores. I like going in and flipping through the books. Sure, I could buy the book on Amazon for $4 less, but if I keep doing that eventually book stores won't be around. And I like book stores." Ever since then, I usually try to buy the book in B…

For such concerned customers, Amazon Book store seems to be the solution. So still you can flip the pages and buy online but Book store won't go anywhere.

Is there an incentive for them to continue operating physical locations once their competitors are out of business?

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#56

Post by Illniyar »

meric wrote: post #54
vnorby wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

Ironic, I browse on Amazon and buy on bookdepository.com for the free delivery.

Well now bookdepository is owned by amazon.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#57

Post by sib »

antsar wrote: post #42
anindyabd wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article, even though you can't see all the reviews, you can see at least one review or a rating: "Below each book on the shelf is a card with either a review or a rating from the site."

"A rating". Why not give high-margin items get a cherrypicked high rating, and low-margin items a cherrypicked three/four star rating (you can't just say everything is five stars, of course).

Possibly, but given (1) everything in the store is highly rated and (2) they're as much as asking customers to "showroom" and check for more information on Amazon.com, it seems like that would backfire pretty quickly.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#58

Post by rexerexer »

pmorici wrote: post #35
thinkling wrote: post #3

I'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?

They could eventually use these as order pick-up points for customers or launching points for drone deliveries. The biggest pain when using Amazon is having to worry about the package getting stolen or going and tracing it down at the shipping office. I'd rather just drop by the Amazon store on my way home from work get the package and be on my way.

I don't think you're the only to share sentiment.

While it certainly conjures up negative associations for me - I would actually be in favor of a process with similarities to a drive-thru for pick up of online orders.

It may be nice to go inside and browse, but the experience in entropy that is now making even a minor purchase at Apple stores has me in avoidance of them.

Besides, Amazon is a logistics company.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#59

Post by hn_user2 »

devindotcom wrote: post #22
tom-_- wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This has got to be valuable data. Not only do they have data on volume of purchases, but now have data on interested buyers that were price sensitive.
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