Yup! Bookstores didn’t see this one coming. After almost two decades since its conception, Amazon has finally opened its first ever physical bookstore to the delight the famous ebook retailer’s customers who also yearn to have hard copies of their favorite ebooks.
This Tuesday morning at exactly 9:30 a.m., Amazon is going to open its first ever physical retail store in University Village in Seattle. And according to Geekwire, the bookstore is called "Amazon Books" as per the company's letter to its customers sent on Monday.
Given that Amazon has remained the number one ebook retailer to date, Amazon Books VP Jennifer Cast clarified that that the brick-and-mortar will serve as a "physical extension of Amazon.com."
Seattle Times reported that Amazon Books look no different from the bookstores populating the county. It has wood shelves that are stocked with over 5,000 to 6,000 titles and best-sellers.
Aside from books, customers can also expect to see Amazon's hardware in the physical bookstore i.e. Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV and Echo among others.
Amazon Books also promises that clients will get utmost and sincere help from its staff who are willing to answer all queries about the company's products and even "show the products in action."
Whether of not Amazon is opening more physical bookstores remains to be seen, but Cast has already expressed that the Seattle-based store will not be Amazon's only one.
"We're completely focused on this bookstore. We hope this is not our only one. But we'll see," Cast was quoted as saying.
The opening of Amazon Books comes a month after Shelf Awareness broke a story claiming that Amazon was already building a physical bookstore in the former Blue C Sushi location.
The news also comes amid a fortunate gesture from Amazon that has now decided to offer more benefits to its 222,000 employees, the New York Times has learned.
The benefits are greatly felt by new parents. Instead of not offering paternity leave and giving only up to eight weeks of maternity leave to its employees, Amazon has now given male employees the benefit of up to six weeks of paternity leave, while moms can get up to 20 weeks of leave.
These enhanced family-friendly benefits are seen as Amazon's way of keeping up to the tightening competition of the tech world for talented employees that ensure longevity by providing key benefits.
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