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Today in Seattle, Amazon is opening its first ever bookstore — a real, physical bookstore with "real, wooden doors," 

Books, of course, were Amazon's first love. The Internet retailer launched as an online bookstore in 1995. Now, twenty years later, it carries everything from aspirin to zombie costumes, and can deliver some items in just an hour. Books remain a huge part of the company's reputation.

Over the years, Amazon's ability to undercut brick-and-mortar bookstores' prices has sparked tensions between independent stores and the online retailer. Local bookshops fired back, touting the value of staff recommendations and the in-person shopping experience.

But Amazon's shop in Seattle's University Village neighborhood won't operate exactly like a traditional bookstore. The shop will harness the hundreds of thousands of reviews that readers have submitted to Amazon.com: Selected reviews will be printed out and displayed with the books.

The shop's selection will be influenced both by sales data from its site, and by its human staff. 

"The books in our store are selected based on Amazon.com customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, popularity on Goodreads, and our curators' assessments," according to the company.

In addition to books, customers will also be able to try out Amazon devices like the Kindle e-reader. The staff will be on-hand to help people troubleshoot the technology, calling to mind Barnes & Noble's in-store NOOK kiosks or Apple's Genius Bar.

The most notable difference at Amazon Books, compared to other bookstores, may be the display method: Every book will be face-out, as opposed to packed in tightly with just the spine showing. 

Jennifer Cast, vice president of Amazon Books, 

 that this allows the store to showcase authors instead of just squeezing in titles.

"We realized that we felt sorry for the books that were spine out," Cast said.

Amazon has said that the prices in its physical bookstore will be the same as the prices online.

Arts and Culture

The Thread® - Books and Literary News

Tracy Mumford

Author

Amazon launched as an online book retailer in 1995. Twenty years later, the company is opening its first brick-and-mortar bookstore in Seattle.

Amazon opens its first physical bookstore today

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