![]() ![]() Jobs relaunched Apple's online store in 1997 and opened the first two physical stores in 2001. Seeing a need for improved retail presentation of the company's products, he began an effort in 1997 to revamp the retail program to get an improved relationship with consumers and hired Ron Johnson in 2000. The first Apple Stores were originally opened as two locations in May 2001 by then- CEO Steve Jobs, after years of attempting but failing store-within-a-store concepts. The stores sell various Apple products, including Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple TV digital media players, software, and both Apple-branded and selected third-party accessories. The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. Apple & third-party software and accessories. ![]() “I suspect it’s a test,” Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said. It remains to be seen whether Amazon will undertake a serious expansion into real bookstores. “It will be a way to have the Amazon experience at the mall,” Copic said.īoth stores are near big colleges, which could provide a boost from students curious to check out Amazon in person after regularly ordering from the website. San Diego’s demographic makeup presumably matches that of the e-tailer’s online customer base, he said.Ĭopic anticipates that Amazon will use the San Diego venue to sell its entire brand - not just books - and teach shoppers about the perks of Prime membership, such as music and TV content, or educate them on the advantages of owning an Echo. The Westfield UTC mall represents a great “showcase” location for Amazon, said Miro Copic, a branding expert and marketing lecturer at San Diego State. ![]() That location spans 7,500 square feet, with approximately 5,500 square feet of retail space. The shopping center matches the style and retailers of University Village, the Seattle-area mall where Amazon’s first bookstore opened in November. In the same mall, other e-commerce companies such as menswear retailer Bonobos and trendy eyeglass company Warby Parker have also put down physical roots. The San Diego store will be located in an upscale mall adjacent to a Tesla store and across from an Apple store. In some ways though, Amazon’s first two bookstores will mimic the formula of many traditional bookstores - opening up shop where affluent shoppers are. “I had this distinctive reaction,” he joked, “that cash flow is bad, so they can’t afford inventory.” “For a store of that size, they don’t have that many books compared to what an independent would have,” Mutter said. The shop seemed to be more a showcase for devices, he said, than books. Mutter, who has been to Amazon’s Seattle store, said he was surprised by its sparse book inventory. The Echo, the company’s latest gadget, is an in-home personal assistant powered by artificial intelligence. That venue also doubles as a showroom for the e-commerce brand’s expanding hardware lineup, which includes its Kindle, Fire TV, Fire tablets and Echo. The San Diego store will presumably resemble the Seattle location, which sells a limited selection of Amazon’s best-reviewed books. Orders can be shipped directly from the stores, while the locations themselves can serve as convenient places for shoppers to browse products and return items in person, industry watchers said. “In some ways it feels like they want to get into brick-and-mortar book retailing to try and disrupt the one part of the business they don’t dominate.”Īnalysts say that Amazon could also be experimenting with using physical stores as smaller versions of distribution centers, which it has been aggressively opening in recent years to ensure speedy delivery times. Amazon “dominates the book market,” said John Mutter, editor-in-chief of Shelf Awareness, an online newsletter for booksellers and librarians. ![]()
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