Amazon is a giant in the book biz, which is subtly ironic considering they only sell books online. Of course in recent years they have expanded beyond online book sales to include other products. A sign of the times, Amazon even expanded to create the Kindle, their very own e-book reader, allowing them to sell books without books.
Now the very changing landscape of the internet may be changing even more, but not in the direction you might expect. Amazon is currently testing the market to see if a real brick and mortar retail store will fit their business model.
“Sources close to the situation” tell trade blog Good E-Reader Amazon plans to roll out a small, boutique store in Seattle in the next few months as a test of whether physical stores could be profitable. The pilot location will focus on Kindles and accessories. It’s not clear if the store will even stock books, but Amazon’s publishing imprints have been banned from Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, so there would be a rationale for doing so.
This does seem a little strange considering they have made quite a name for themselves as a store without a store.
It does make sense that if Amazon wants to be considered a player in the publishing market, this would allow them to have more places to sell their published works.
Amazon broke all trends, creating a retail market without a retail brick and mortar storefront, and now decides to dabble in traditional sales methods? Does this feel backwards to you?