Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) is reportedly planning to open a second brick and mortar store in one of the cities on the west coast.
Amazon had previously killed off brick and mortar stores about 20 years ago, but it recently made a comeback with the launch of the first store in Seattle. This is the second store is expected to be initiated in San Diego where it will be situated at the Westfield UTC Mall. The company started listing job positions for the bookstore in February.
One of the company’s spokespersons stated that they were excited to launch Amazon Books in San Diego and that the firm is currently signing new associates and store managers. The dimensions of the new bookstore in San Diego will most likely be similar to those of the store in Seattle. If so, the store will boast of 7,500 square feet and retail space measuring 5,500 square feet. The store offers people an opportunity to get their hands on a large variety of books especially those that are also available in its famous online store.
The stores will also stock Amazon devices such as tablets, Echo, and the Kindle readers. Amazon has put in a lot of effort to make sure that the locations of the two stores have similar characteristics. John Mutter, the editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness stated that the location of the store in San Diego is strikingly similar to the location of the store in Seattle. He also added that the pace at which the company is opening the stores suggests that Amazon wants to proceed with moderation. This will allow more accuracy in the few stores that will be opened rather than opening more than hastily opening as many as 300 to 400 stores as had been hinted earlier.
Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research, stated that time will present some vital lessons about selling books in a physical environment and that might affect the overall proportion of sales over the long term. However, brick and mortar and not so easy to figure out and profits may not be the immediate expectations for Amazon.