From The Oregonian:
The Washington Square store generating the most excitement on Saturday afternoon wasn’t the one selling Teslas, or the shop with American Girl dolls, or even the one offering diamonds. It was a bookstore.
It was Amazon’s bookstore, an admission by the nation’s largest online retailerthat brick and mortar really do matter.
The Tigard store marks the third Amazon Books store in the nation. The ecommerce giant opened a Seattle store late last year, followed by a San Diego store in September. It plans to open more stores in Chicago and Boston.
On Saturday afternoon, the Portland-area store opened for several hours, testing its new location before it opens permanently sometime this week.
The store was flooded with curious passersby, eager to get a look at Amazon’s tech-laden bookstore.
. . . .
At 7,800 square feet, the store is larger than some independent bookstores but much smaller than a typical Barnes & Noble. And with all the books face-out, the store stocks just a fraction – about 5,200 – of the books in your average bookstore.
Jennifer Nordquist, an administrative assistant from Southwest Portland who stopped in the store Saturday, said it felt a little squeezed for space, but chalked it up to first-day crowds.
Despite its limited selection of books, Nordquist said she was pleased with the titles she saw, and noticed several books that hadn’t been available at other area bookstores.
The immediate area has been without a bookstore since 2012, when Barnes & Noble closed its store near the mall and moved to Bridgeport Village.
“It’s nice having a bookstore nearby,” Nordquist said.
. . . .
“Our goal is not to find bestsellers,” Cast said. “Our goal is to find books that customers will love.”
And while Amazon’s bookstores might not seem as cozy as others with live-in cats, well-worn armchairs and hand-written staff recommendations, Cast says the stores are driven by data from passionate book-lovers.
Instead of a hand-written card under a few books per shelf, every single book in Amazon’s store features a placard with a customer review or a notable award the book received.
And the store offers other navigational tools to help browsing customers: There’s a table dedicated to books with an average rating of 4.8 stars and above and an end-cap featuring book club picks by Amazon’s Goodreads network. There’s a shelf dedicated to books with local connections, and scattered throughout the store are Netflix-style recommendations: If you liked this title, you’ll love these, a sign promises.
Link to the rest at The Oregonian
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