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Amazon Opens Its First-Ever Physical Store, Selling Books on Paper, With a Side of Irony

Amazon, bookstore slayer, meet Amazon, bookstore owner.

by Jason Del Rey
BPTU/Shutterstock
Jason Del Rey
Jason Del Rey has been a business journalist for 15 years and has covered Amazon, Walmart, and the e-commerce industry for the last decade. He was a senior correspondent at Vox.

Amazon, bookstore slayer, meet Amazon, bookstore owner.

The e-commerce giant known in many circles as the archenemy of brick-and-mortar stores — and bookstores, specifically — plans to open its first physical storefront in its history on Tuesday. The store’s name? Amazon Books. Yes, Amazon is opening a bookstore in its hometown of Seattle.

In an interview with the Seattle Times, Amazon said that the physical store would use online customer reviews and other digital data to inform some of its inventory decisions. Amazon will display a review or rating for each of the 5,000 or so books on display. Prices will match those on Amazon.com.

“It’s data with heart,” Amazon Books VP Jennifer Cast told the paper.

To those bookstore owners and authors who blame Amazon for the demise of the neighborhood bookstore, though, the move is an ironic twist considering the company’s history as chief instigator of the digitization of reading and book selling. Unsurprisingly, the store will also showcase Amazon’s own line of e-readers, tablets and video-streaming devices.

Amazon Books opens at 9:30 am PT on Tuesday, at 4601 26th Ave. NE, at the the former Blue C Sushi location in Seattle’s University District.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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