Amazon.com, the eCommerce giant, will open its first bookstore in New York City Thursday (May 25), marking the seventh physical store for the company.
According to a report, the store, which is located in The Shops at Columbus Circle, is 4,000 square feet and is in a mall that was once home to Borders bookstore. Other tenants in the retail space include Whole Foods Market, Coach, Michael Kors and pricey restaurants Per Se and Masa, noted the report.
When the bookstore opens this week, it will be staffed with around 20 workers and will have an inventory of around 3,000 books. The books will reportedly be displayed with the covers forward and will have a placard that has a customer review and bar code that is scannable and provides pricing and more information. The books being sold have to have had a four star or higher rating on Amazon.com, with the exception of some books that are bestsellers and were newly released.
Amazon will also sell its devices in the store, including the Echo, Fire tablets, gift items and AmazonBasic branded products, such as cables and batteries. Pricing on the products will be the same as it is for Prime members online. Customers who aren’t part of Amazon Prime pay what the items are priced at on the website but have to pay the list price for books and other merchandise, noted the report.
The Columbus Circle store in New York City is the first of three retail locations Amazon plans to open in the New York City market. Another will be located on 34th Street near Macy’s and will open in the summer, and another will be in Westfield Garden State Plaza mall in New Jersey, also slated for an opening in the summer.
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