Amazon Opens Bookstore In DC

Betting that its popularity with shoppers online will translate into brick-and-mortar customers in Washington, D.C., Amazon opens an Amazon Books location in the nation’s capital. The store occupies a space that formally housed a Barnes & Noble store in Georgetown, The Washington Post reported.

The opening is the eCommerce retailer’s first bookstore in the Washington, D.C., area. The location is stocked with books, electronics and toys, among other items, but this bookstore is unique from other brick-and-mortar stores, in that there are no price tags.

If customers want to find out how much an item costs, they have to use Amazon’s mobile app to scan the item for a price. If customers don’t have a phone, they can use a scanning machine in the store. For Prime members, Amazon will charge the same price for items in the store as it does online.

“What we’re really trying to do is create a place where customers can come and discover new books,” Cameron Janes, vice president of Amazon Books, told the Post. “As you walk through the store, you’ll see that what we’ve really tried to do is create an extension of Amazon.com.”

The news comes as Amazon is reportedly gearing up to open more cashless brick-and-mortar convenience stores, dubbed Amazon Go.

Recode, citing multiple people familiar with Amazon’s plans, reported news that the eCommerce giant is planning to open as many as six new Amazon Go locations in 2018. Some are expected to be in Seattle — Amazon’s hometown and the location of its first Amazon Go.

New stores are also expected in Los Angeles, where, Recode reported, Amazon was in talks with Rick Caruso, the billionaire real estate developer, about having an Amazon Go located at The Grove, a 600,000-square-foot outdoor shopping mall. As for its hometown of Seattle, the report noted the company has pinpointed three potential locations for more stores, which were identified last year.