A Review of the Amazon Books Store | Hacker News Reader

A Review of the Amazon Books Store

programmingzen.com

45 pointsacangiano42 comments

Looks like a great way to buy a bestseller from Amazon without having to wait for shipping. But it's not going to appeal much to the kind of people who are willing to spend hours wandering the aisles of a real bookstore. One of the things that makes me a very happy Portlander is that Powell's City of Books (http://powells.com) is always crowded with blissed-out bibliophiles perusing the million-plus new+used volumes.

But I could be all wrong. I don't understand the business of books at all, because I would think that a store like Powell's would flourish in other literate locations (e.g., Minneapolis / St Paul), and yet it remains sadly unique in the U.S.

There are other places like Powell's: Haslam's in St. Petersburg, FL - http://www.haslams.com/ and others.

Edit: Thanks for the location correction - I lived there for five years and should know better. ;)

Thanks so much for the tip. Are new and used volumes shelved together at Haslam's?

No, they are in different sections.

Haslam's is wonderful; I grew up going there. But its across the Bay in St. Petersburg.

In Minneapolis there's Magers and Quinn

I love M&Q but it's mostly used books and really small.

In the various reviews I've seen for this store, no one seems to have raised the question of, how would a store like this be profitable? It's selling books at the same prices as Amazon online, but with the added overhead of being in a very high-rent space in an upscale shopping center. There seem to be lots of employees for a book store. At the discounts that Amazon offers, their margin on books is thinner than most bookstores. Sales would need to be very high to make this pencil out, from what I can see.

This might be a play like the old Crown Books stores which sold only best sellers at a big discount with the idea of making it up on volume. But Crown did not last long. Amazon does have good data about what people buy, so perhaps they could maximize revenue per square foot by packing popular sellers in. On the other hand, one departure of this store from typical bookstores is that books are all facing out on the shelves, meaning fewer titles and probably less revenue per square foot.

I'm wondering how this approach to bookstores could pay off for Amazon, except by putting competitive pressure on any other bookstores in the area. But Barnes and Noble closed the store it had in this shopping center quite some time ago. Is it advertising, an attempt to upscale Amazon's brand? Amazon has the number one favorable brand among consumers from what I've read, and it's certainly where most people go these days for books -- last report I saw said over 80% of book buyers use Amazon. So what the business purpose of this store is, unclear to me. But it's Amazon, and surely they're just a few steps ahead of what I can see.

Like many other Amazon products, it's likely to get people into the Amazon ecosystem. You need to install the Amazon app to read prices and they can upsell their Fire devices in-store. Considering how they went for a high-end Barnes and Noble/Apple Store mix vibe, their primary goal is likely not to sell books but to get a foothold into physical retail like Apple.

Those physical Microsoft stores are often practically vacant.

But what would the marketing budget for a really well placed billboard be per month? What if you could walk into the billboard? Host launch parties starring famous bands, getting you into more news stories. Fans can make a pilgrimage to something tangible.

Apple stores are clearly profitable, but I wonder if "close to break even" isn't a good enough goal for brand awareness stores like these.

Really? The one here in Cleveland always has people in it - not packed, but always more customers than employees.

Interesting. The Microsoft store here in Seattle (same shopping mall as the Amazon Store) generally has more employees than customers when I walk by in late evening. In contrast, the Apple store ~100m away, facing the Microsoft store, is reliably busy.

Customers are being trained to repeatedly scan barcodes to check the price on Amazon. Something that, rather conveniently, they can then do in every other shop they visit.

>The second advantage is actually a side effect of their limited selection approach. They are essentially offering a pre-selection service to the public.

this seems less like "a review of the amazon books store" and more like "an amazon user finds out what a book store is"

Does anyone have a good online bookselling that isn't Amazon? I started using abebooks before realizing its Amazon owned. bookdepository.com is good, but not great. oreilly.com is good for their stuff. B&N is OK I guess.

I think half.com is pretty good.

Bookdepository.com is also Amazon owned.

bookdepository.com is also Amazon-owned.

bookdepository.com is also owned by Amazon, since 2011. It's hard to escape their grasp on the market.

eBay! A huge number of independent bookstores sell books, both used and new, online via eBay.

I like to buy specialty books directly from publishers. Art books are often difficult to find elsewhere, and tech books tend to come with nice extras.

I used to prefer FNAC, but they only exist in France.

We have FNAC in Italy :)

And in Spain :P

"As of 2015, the company has stores in France, Belgium, Brazil, Monaco, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland" (Wikipedia)

It seems they sold off their Italian stores in 2013.

Most of my physical book copies have come from http://subterraneanpress.com the last few years. Mostly because at this point when I want a physical copy of a book it tends to be a special edition/signed copy.

Never used them but wordery.com might be an option

There's Powell's Books. http://www.powells.com

https://alibris.com gets many of its books from libraries rotating their collections. Think of it as adopting a "rescue book." :-)

Sadly this likely won't help you but in Brazil they've got one site, called Estante Virtual [1], for a network of almost 1,500 independent used bookstores across the country. Even though I no longer live there, I use them as much as possible (ordering books to friends homes if they're going home to visit). While the site charges these indy stores between $12-40 USD per month for the chance to sell on their site, I would think it'd still be a good deal for the stores.

I'm not sure if this kind of used bookstore network exists in the English-speaking world but I'd love to know if it does.

1 - http://www.estantevirtual.com.br/

"The central section however is dedicated to various gadgets, mostly created by Amazon itself, such as Echo, Fire TV, Kindle Fire, etc. In this the shop reminded me a little of the Apple Store, which clearly inspired the layout of this section."

The focal point of the "amazon books" store is its tech, not books. They are using "book store" as a cover. The U-Village is an upscale shopping experience and easily allows for impulse buys on new $100+ tech products. It's their version of the Apple Store.

I wonder if the book store is large enough to host a data center or if there's already one in there

Why would they want to do that?

Absolutely not and that would be an awful idea to boot. It's a regular looking bookstore in a regular looking place (an outdoor mall).

I think Seattle City Light would be a bit too expensive.

What? No Jeff Bezos robot?! http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/2247.html

Short summary: verdict - useless

Knowing the terrible privacy- and tracking-issue history as related to the Amazon app, I would never install it for any reason, much less just to check prices.

In fact, after reading this, it makes me wonder if the real purpose behind these stores isn't simply to force people to install the app.

> In fact, after reading this, it makes me wonder if the real purpose behind these stores isn't simply to force people to install the app.

Oh yea, the Bezos long con where by he knows if he makes a store you will visit it and you WILL install his app... Or maybe he just wants a place for people to use and demo their physical devices?

According to the article, there are no prices posted in the store and the only way to get them is to install the app, so apparently yes you WILL install the app if you actually want to buy something.

And just in case you are not aware of the security issues with the Amazon app[1]

[1] http://www.computerworld.com/article/2489480/security0/amazo...

Actually, according to the article:

> For those with a dead battery or who are not inclined to take their smartphone out of their pocket, there are a few scanners around the bookstore, which you can use to scan books and discover their prices.

People who refuse to install the Amazon app are also very unlikely to visit the Amazon store. Just get your books elsewhere.

Also your link has nothing to do with security issues in the Amazon app and is just a ranking from the EFF for how companies respond to records requests.

> Amazon, Snapchat and AT&T rank among the least trustworthy technology companies when it comes to how they handle government data requests, according to a report from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

> People who refuse to install the Amazon app are also very unlikely to visit the Amazon store. Just get your books elsewhere.

Exactly...that's what my original post said I was going to do, so we agree.

I don't really understand what the big deal was.

Because you theorized that the stores were a plot to get people to install the Amazon app. Which is absurd.

> "it makes me wonder if the real purpose behind these stores isn't simply to force people to install the app"

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