‘Bookstore killer’ Amazon opening its first brick-and-mortar location

Prices at Amazon Books are the same as on Amazon.com. The available titles are based largely on online sales numbers and customer reviews.

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Amazon is solidifying its brand—literally.

It’s been asserted for years that Amazon is killing bookstores. Today, Amazon opens a brick-and-mortar bookstore in Seattle’s University Village.

It features 5,000 titles—most of which have received at least four-star ratings on the Amazon website—in a building with 5,500 square feet of floor space.

In addition to customer ratings, the books offered in the store are based on pre-orders, sales, popularity on reader recommendation site Goodreads and its curators’ assessments, according to The Bookseller.

The way books are displayed differs from that of other bookstores. Here, most books are shown face-out, and a review card containing its Amazon.com customer rating and a review is attached below it.

In a note to customers, Jennifer Cast, vice president of Amazon Books, stated:

Amazon Books is a physical extension of Amazon.com. We’ve applied 20 years of online bookselling experience to build a store that integrates the benefits of offline and online book shopping.

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