Talk about rubbing salt in the wound.
After helping to devastate chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble with rock-bottom book prices, Amazon has the retail world all a-flutter with the news it may be planning a major expansion into brick-and-mortar bookstores.
Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal published a comment Sandeep Mathrani, chief executive of mall operator General Growth Properties, made on an earnings call. According to Mathrani, Amazon has a goal to open 300 to 400 bookstores. He did not elaborate.
Amazon opened its first physical bookstore in Seattle in November. The company was mum on its future plans at the time, telling TWICE only “We’ll see” when asked about additional locations.
The Seattle store sells books and Kindle devices, all marked at the same prices consumers can find on Amazon.com.
TWICE reached out to Amazon for a comment on this latest news but hadn’t heard back as of this writing.
Update: General Growth Properties released a statement that Mathrani’s statement “was not intended to represent Amazon’s plans.”
