Report: Amazon Is Planning Hundreds Of Physical Bookstores Nationwide

This is a bookstore. It is not Amazon’s bookstore. (Gina Herold)

This is a bookstore. It is not Amazon’s bookstore. (Gina Herold)

If you thought Amazon was determined to eventually put all bookstores out of business, that isn’t quite true. Today, a mall CEO let slip that the Everything Store, which began by selling just books, wants to duplicate its real-life bookstore in Seattle across the country. Update: The company has clarified that this was not meant to be a statement about Amazon’s actual plans, but neither company denies the story, either.

This surprising news came from Sandeep Mathrani, the CEO of General Growth Properties. The Wall Street Journal reports that Mathrani mentioned during an earnings call that Amazon plans to open between 300 and 400 mall bookstores across the country. When a reporter followed up, both companies declined to comment about his remark during the call.

In addition to being a fun and curated book-browsing experience, physical Amazon stores would get the company’s e-reader products into customers’ hands, as well as any future phones that the company sells.

Physical Amazon stores could also possibly serve as pickup and return points for online orders from the retailer, which is what the on-campus Amazon facilities that have opened on college campuses across the country do.

Amazon Plans Hundreds of Brick-and-Mortar Bookstores, Mall CEO Says [Wall Street Journal]

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