Amazon closing all Amazon Books, 4 Star stores

[Brian Lutz]

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/02/amazon- ... shops.html

This will leave a few vacancies in local malls here, as Alderwood, Southcenter and Totem Lake all have 4 star stores. Bellevue Square had an Amazon Book store as well, although I can't tell if it's still there or not..

[Alpha8472]

Amazon killed off most bookstores when it started selling books online. Then Amazon opened up a few token bookstores which had very few books. Most of the time the employees told you to order the book you wanted online. They even closed down the cafes in the Amazon bookstores. These little stores were nothing but advertising so that you would learn to hate brick and mortar bookstores and buy at Amazon.com.

[babs]

Amazon killed off most bookstores when it started selling books online. Then Amazon opened up a few token bookstores which had very few books. Most of the time the employees told you to order the book you wanted online. They even closed down the cafes in the Amazon bookstores. These little stores were nothing but advertising so that you would learn to hate brick and mortar bookstores and buy at Amazon.com.

The intent of the stores was to be a showroom for Amazon products such as Alexa. It was never about the books. They must have come to the realization that it wasn't doing much to really sell their smart products and the stores were really giant return centers.

[storewanderer]

Appears Amazon is telling 1,800 office workers in Downtown Seattle not to work in Downtown Seattle due to the uptick in crime around the office.

I wonder if this will impact any of Amazon's stores in that Downtown Seattle area as well.

I didn't initially find this at Seattle Times but figured I'd go ahead and link from there instead of where I found it.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/a ... e-hit-area

[babs]

Appears Amazon is telling 1,800 office workers in Downtown Seattle not to work in Downtown Seattle due to the uptick in crime around the office.

I wonder if this will impact any of Amazon's stores in that Downtown Seattle area as well.

I didn't initially find this at Seattle Times but figured I'd go ahead and link from there instead of where I found it.
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/a ... e-hit-area

I don't know how many Amazon employees are currently in site but this is blocks away from their core campus near Lake Washington and is a very small part of their core Seattle office. There is an Amazon Go inside the old Macy's building that is only accessible to employees who work there. Overall, this on its own isn't going to make or break their retail operations.

[MSSportsGuy]

I found the Amazon bookstore in Nashville not long after it opened during a visit and thought it was okay, nothing to get excited about but not bad. I did purchase something but it wasn't a "have to" stop during future visits.

The 4 star plus store I visited in Atlanta during the summer of 21 was an absolute disaster. It was tacky, seemed to be mostly kitchen items, and very disorganized. I left without even considering buying anything in fifteen minutes.

I honestly think Amazon could make a purchase for Kohls and operate them as pick up/distribution/return centers and still keep a small amount of inventory and make them work.

[ClownLoach]

I found the Amazon bookstore in Nashville not long after it opened during a visit and thought it was okay, nothing to get excited about but not bad. I did purchase something but it wasn't a "have to" stop during future visits.

The 4 star plus store I visited in Atlanta during the summer of 21 was an absolute disaster. It was tacky, seemed to be mostly kitchen items, and very disorganized. I left without even considering buying anything in fifteen minutes.

I honestly think Amazon could make a purchase for Kohls and operate them as pick up/distribution/return centers and still keep a small amount of inventory and make them work.

When the bookstores first opened they were like a 4 star store for books - all books were faced out on the shelves with a review tag below. It was a super curated selection and it was an interesting experience. But then they added the Amazon return desk and stopped changing the book assortment constantly to be on trend and it became a bunch of slow moving overstock books. They lost what made them special, until they finally just over expanded other general merchandise into the book space and the newer signs changed to 4 Star store. They forgot who they were.