Visiting Amazon’s New Bookstore ⇥ newrepublic.com

Dustin Kurtz, a former bookseller himself, visited Amazon’s new physical location for the New Republic:

Matching online prices is crucial to the conceit of Amazon Books: the store is not just an overcrowded ex-sushi restaurant with limited selection and a creepily insistent smile in its logo, but a physical extension of the site itself.

Each book in the store is displayed face-out.This display method limits the stock that can be carried. Amazon Books stock about five titles per three linear feet of shelving, while most bookstores more than triple that. It may also be meant to mimic the way books are presented on Amazon’s site.

I doubt Amazon will want to open a lot of bookstores. But Amazon retail stores – that seems more their style.