For those who don't want their books delivered to their doorstep by drone, Amazon is expanding their brick and mortar business with a store in Manhattan. 

Which is good, right? Because we definitely needed Amazon to take the place of things other than just grocery stores (sarcasm, y'all). 

The primarily online retailer will open up a bookstore in the Shops in Columbus Circle in Time Warner Center on 59th Street. 

There's no official opening date, but there’s rumor it would be in the spring.

According to The Verge, the NYC location comes after similar storefronts in Seattle, Portland, and San Diego.

The website notes that Amazon Books will offer equal prices to Amazon's online site for Prime customers, integration of Amazon and Goodreads reviews, and Kindle devices for purchasing.

This isn’t the only physical leap Amazon is making. As reported on the WashingtonPost, the store is also opening up a grocery store called “Amazon Go” in Seattle. 

We mentioned before about how the store will allow customers to fill their shopping bags and walk out without going through a checkout process, a concept that has long been discussed in the retail industry but that has not been implemented at major U.S. stores. 

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The idea is that it will shave time off the shopping experience by utilizing computer vision, machine learning and artificial intelligence, every item the shoppers tuck into their bags or carts will be tracked on the phone.


Some consumers welcome the new technology implementations, while others show more concern for the lack of human interaction. Will this be the start of a new era of shopping and should shops be concerned? 

We’ll see.

[via The Verge] [via WashingtonPost] [Feature Image Courtesy The Verge] 

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