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So, I went to Amazon Books…

Amazon’s new physical book store is all the buzz right now… at least in most of the places I hang out online. Being a Seattle-ite (ish), I was about ready to jump in the car as soon as I heard it was open. Instead, I waited a couple days. And that was a good decision – no freakishly long lines like I heard about on opening day.

It was still crowded inside and the atmosphere was warm and exciting. I’m sure that’s only natural, though, given all the buzz and newness of it. But overall, it was a fun experience and I’m looking forward to going back.

Oh, and on a side note, I took all these pictures with my Kindle Fire. I only thought that would be fitting.

Author Stacy Claflin at Amazon Books

See, no crazy lines. Hey, no rain, either. But it was pouring before. It is Seattle.

See? Rain on the windshield… (That was after the previously mentioned downpour.)

Car

Anyway, you didn’t come here to read about rain. Back to Amazon Books. And the buzz.

This bookstore is different from the rest.

It’s meant to mimic the online experience. Some people didn’t like it, but I found it cool. I liked the reviews on the shelves. Well, the review on each book along with the overall star rating.

Amazon Books rating shelf

And to make sure Goodreads doesn’t feel left out:

goodreads

What about prices? Amazon’s prices always fluctuate. And they want to have the lowest prices, so what happens in their physical store? No fear…

Prices

And what about paying cash? We confirmed this at the register. No cash accepted. The Amazon Books experience is as close to online shopping as possible.

Don’t want to check your phone to see what something costs? No problem. There are plenty of these:

price check

What else is different?

Almost no spines face out. You get to see the cover of every item. Well, the ones for sale. There are a bunch of spines out near the ceiling, but from what I could tell, they were only for decoration.

spines

And that’s not the only place they decorated. Their enormous kids’ section has some nice paintings to gaze at.

painting1
painting4
painting2

And speaking of fun for kids, mine can’t wait to return. They asked to come back every week. Aside from books, kids can play with Kindle tablets all over the store and even play games on the Amazon Fire TV.

kids table
Amazon Fire TV

Do you have questions? Amazon has Answers!

answers

Or do you have ideas? Jot them down. Or tell someone. They’ll write it on a sticky note. Or at least they did for us. (And I’m sure that had nothing to do with my husband telling the guy that I’m a popular local indie on Amazon…)

ideas

I played a little while I was there, too… First, I tried adding my books to their kindles. A girl can try, right? It showed a few, but no downloads.

kindle

Then I pretended to find my book on their shelves.

Gone

Oh, don’t forget your Wish List…

Wishlist

And some things they didn’t have.

  • No POD (Print On Demand) Kiosk
  • QR Codes to purchase ebooks online

Have you been to Amazon Books? What did you think? Do you want to go? 

13 Comments

  1. Erika says:

    That’s really cool, Stacy! I bet your books will be in there one day – and they will have you in for a book signing! They should be so lucky… 🙂

    1. Thanks, Erika! 🙂 It would be fun to do a book signing there.

  2. Derek Murphy says:

    Fun! I’ll have to drive up sometime. I can’t wait to have some fiction published, so I can start going into bookstores and pretending to find my books there. 🙂

    1. Hi Derek!
      Thanks so much for stopping by! Can I admit to a slight fangirl moment when I saw your comment? 🙂

      Oh, and you don’t have to wait to publish fiction to do that. You just need a paperback. Amazon Books has a lot of nonfiction! I just didn’t get any pictures. 🙂

  3. Crystal Cox says:

    Just curious do they offer ship to store books to save on shipping ?

    1. I wondered that, too, but from what I read it’s strictly a bookstore.

      1. Crystal Cox says:

        Darn lol, Thank you for the response 🙂

  4. Mackay Bell says:

    Best piece yet on the Amazon store. Thanks for all the pictures. It doesn’t seem like finding out the prices of books is that hard.

    1. Thank you! No, it’s not hard. Just walk the book over to a price check.

  5. Mary Martin says:

    Thank you Stacy for the virtual tour. I felt like I really got to see what the store looks like. I may even get a chance to go there next summer, while visiting friends in the Seattle ☔ area. I’ll be sure to look for your books 📚 and take a selfie with them ☺.

  6. Thanks for all the photos! It looks amazing, love how they’ve tried to mirror everything like the online store – a bookstore with a difference.

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