Is Amazon planning to open a bookstore in New York City?
Amazon is ready to take Manhattan – according to a report in the New York Post.
Amazon has largely been credited with a crisis in brick-and-mortar bookselling. The online retailer’s success – including its ability to undercut books’ traditional retail prices and its launch of the first popular e-reader, the Kindle – contributed in part to the demise of Border’s, the national bookstore chain that went bankrupt and closed in 2011. From its debut in 1994, Amazon has been seen as a digital player.
So the company raised eyebrows last year when it opened its first bookstore in Seattle. That was followed by a report that the online retailer was planning to open hundreds of bookstores in malls around the country, a story that was quickly denied and recanted.
The New York Post cites unnamed sources who claim the company will open a physical bookstore and cafe in Hudson Yards, a large real estate development on the far west Side of Manhattan.
If the report is accurate, Amazon Books will join department store Neiman Marcus and restaurants helmed by chefs Thomas Keller and José Andrés when the Hudson Yards retail space opens in 2018 or 2019.
The Post quoted one source as saying: “I don’t know if the final lease was signed yet, but I know the deal is happening. There’s no way that deal is dying.”
Although Amazon denied the report of it seeking to open hundreds of bookstores around the country, it has since announced plans for bookstores in San Diego and near Portland, Ore.
According to the New York Post, Amazon’s New York store would include a cafe, which might be a first for the company — the Seattle store doesn’t have one, and there’s no word on whether one will be part of its other planned stores.
Manhattan is home to many independent bookstores, including The Strand, McNally Jackson, Housing Works and Bluestockings.
Amazon did not respond to our request for comment.
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Amazon opens its first brick-and-mortar bookstore
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