Amazon’s new Manhattan bookstore will be across from the Empire State Building
Amazon will open a second brick-and-mortar bookstore in Manhattan in 2017, Publishers Weekly reports. If all goes as planned, that will make a total of 11 physical stores for the online retailer.
Amazon Books will open this summer across the street from the Empire State Building on 34th street. The previously announced Amazon Books is slated to open sometime this spring at Columbus Circle, southwest of Central Park.
The 34th Street location bears a banner reading, “Amazon Books coming soon.†An Amazon spokesperson confirmed the news to Publishers Weekly, saying: “We are currently hiring store managers and associates.â€
Amazon currently operates five physical bookstores across the country, with locations in San Diego, Chicago, Seattle, Dedham, Mass., and Tigard, Ore.
It has announced plans to open additional locations in Walnut Creek, Calif., Lynnfield, Mass., Bellevue, Wash., and Paramus, N.J.
Amazon’s decision to venture into the world of physical bookstores has been met with alarm and hostility from owners and patrons of independent bookstores, many of whom blame the company for the stores’ declining sales.
The company’s location near the Empire State Building is less than three miles from three of New York’s most famous independent bookstores: Idlewild Books, Housing Works Books and the Strand.
New York might not be the only huge city Amazon has its sights on. Last month, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported that the company had been scouting locations in L.A. and that it might be interested in neighborhoods including Pasadena, Century City and Westwood.
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