At the time of this writing, Amazon has opened brick-and-mortar bookstores in Seattle, San Diego, and Portland, Oregon, with plans for two more locations in Chicago and Massachusetts. You can now add New York City to the list of planned locations, since the online retail giant confirmed it will open a bookstore there as well, reports The Wall Street Journal.
The store, which will occupy 4,000 square feet in the Shops at Columbus Circle area in the Time Warner Center, is slated to open sometime this spring. Amazon’s announcement confirms a previous rumor insofar as a store opening is concerned, though the rumor alleged it will be located in the Hudson Yards development, which is slated to open in late 2018. This does not dispel the rumor, since Amazon might still open another bookstore in the development.
The increased presence of Amazon’s bookstores looks to be directly correlated to the pressure online shopping has placed on retailers, which resulted in lower rents and increased availability of space. This does not guarantee an Amazon bookstore’s success, though it certainly helps when you do not need to pay as much each month and have plenty of space available to you.
As for the logistics of Amazon’s New York City location, anyone can enter the store, but expect price disparities based on whether you are an Amazon Prime member. Prime members will pay a book’s Prime price, while non-Prime members will pay the book’s non-Prime price. This change went into effect for all three current bookstores, with non-Prime members able to sign up for a 30-day free trial when checking out.
Amazon wants more folks to sign up for Prime, of course, which is likely the reason why the company implemented the change.
