NO MOM-AND-POP SHOP
Amazon opens book on retail
Don’t call it a comeback for brick-and-mortar retail. But e-commerce giant Amazon, which often shares the blame for the sharp decline of bookstores, is moving in on the very earth it scorched, opening actual bookstores across the country, including one in Dedham yesterday. The store, in the Legacy Pl a ce mall, is the fourth in the nation and the first on the East Coast, and eschews the millions of books on Amazon.com, opting for about 5,700 books specifically chosen as “bookstore books.”
There are the tried-and-true bookstore fixtures, like new fiction and nonfiction displays, a travel section and shelves highlighting local authors. But alongside these are potential diamonds in the rough, books that are not particularly popular but have gotten consistently good reviews on Amazon.com. Each book has a review card underneath it, with a sample review and its overall rating out of five stars.
“If you come in here looking for an exact book, you may not find it, but if you’re coming in to discover a book you may not have heard of, that’s our goal,” said Deborah Bass, an Amazon Bookstore spokeswoman. The Dedham store also has a Peet’s Coffee and Tea, the first Amazon Bookstore to have a coffee shop.
“We want our customers to feel really welcome to sit down, read the first chapter or so,” said store manager Nicole Lincoln. “We want people to linger, we want to be part of the community, where people come to hang out.”
Still, on nearly every shelf is a reminder, an ad or a sample of another Amazon product. Sample Kindles sit on shelves surrounded by books and the children’s section has a kid’s version of the Amazon Fire tablet next to toys for kids to play with. An entire section is devoted to Amazon’s Dot and Echo lines of smart speakers, and posters offer a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime.
The bookstore has become the latest perk for members of Prime, which also includes music, television and movie streaming. At the bookstore, Prime members pay the same price as on Amazon. com, while everyone else pays the list price of the book, often a significant difference.
The new book of portraits of veterans by former President George W. Bush released yesterday and displayed in the nonfiction section, for example, is listed at $35, but Prime members pay just $17.98. The new novel by Michael Chabon lists for $28.99, but is just $17.39 for Prime members.
“Now there’s a strategy for saying for some items, let’s have a physical presence,” said Chris Christopher, a retail analyst with IHS Markit. “That could even help sales even more.”