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| My Hubby Outside Amazon Books!! |
This past weekend, my husband and I visited the newly opened Amazon brick and mortar bookstore in Walnut Creek, California. We visited Amazon Books out of sheer curiosity to see what an Amazon bookstore would look like in person. Boy, was this bookstore packed with people, their children, and quite a few pet dogs too the day we made our visit!
We enjoyed our experience visiting Amazon Books in Walnut Creek. There was a greeter at the entrance as well as a Peet's Coffee onsite selling beverages and treats to eat and drink during one's visit.
Plenty of books from nearly every genre are for sale with all the covers facing outward for readers to view easily. There are even tags below each book telling potential buyers how well the book is liked by Amazon readers/reviewers.
Additionally, other Amazon products like the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Kindle are also for sale at their retail location.
I enjoyed the size and layout of Amazon Books in Walnut Creek... It's a large bookstore without being overwhelmingly HUGE.
The staff members we encountered during our visit were friendly and helpful.
We weren't initially planning on making a purchase during our visit to the Amazon Books storefront as I already have way too many books that need to be read before buying more of them and my husband isn't an avid reader like me. I seem to acquire books much faster than I can read them... I'm sure other readers have the same problem I do with acquiring books and not being able to read them quickly enough to keep up with purchases.
At any rate, my plans quickly fell by the wayside when I noticed upon entering Amazon Books that they had autographed copies of John Green's new novel, Turtles All The Way Down, for sale. I want to read this novel, so I decided to purchase John Green's new novel.
Checkout was fast and easy at the Amazon Books cash wrap... Plus, we were able to purchase the latest John Green novel for the discounted price as seen on Amazon's website (40% off the cover price), which was awesome!
As cool as it was to visit a brick and mortar Amazon Books storefront, I think I'll be skipping on a return visit to their physical bookstore in the future.
My husband and I already have an Amazon Prime Membership and we find it much more convenient to shop on Amazon's website day or night in the comfort of our own home. And with our Amazon Prime Membership, we receive free 2 day shipping regardless of the dollar amount spent... Because of these factors, it is less appealing to shop Amazon's physical storefront in my opinion, especially when we purchase more than books from Amazon. In fact, I tend to purchase/acquire books from many sources aside from Amazon (Indie Bookstores, Used Bookstores, FOL Used Bookstores, Little Free Libraries and Bookcrossers, Netgalley, InKitt, Goodreads Giveaways, etc.)
So, have you had the opportunity to visit an Amazon Books storefront? What was your experience like during your visit?
I don't think Amazon has a brick and mortar store near where I live yet but I'm kind of apprehensive like you are. It's just going in the opposite direction that most thing are going in (most stores are trying to get more of an online presence!) although I guess Amazon has pretty much saturated the online market. That is really cool that they're still selling the books for their Amazon.com listed price though! I think I'll do what you did once a store comes into my area and just go once to check it out :)
ReplyDeleteLaura @BlueEyeBooks
It was definitely worth visiting the Amazon Books store in Walnut Creek. I am so glad we stopped by to see what the storefront looked like.
DeleteGood to know you are an equal opportunity book shopper!
ReplyDeleteYes, I most definitely acquire books from all different sources for sure.
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