Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeffrey Bezos may be taking a page from Steve Jobs’s book. Online retail giant Amazon is preparing to open a brick-and-mortar retail store in the near future, according to a Bloomberg News report on Monday.
According to the report, Amazon’s first store would be located in Seattle, where the company is headquartered. The store would sell certain high-margin items from its online store, such as Kindle tablet computers and e-book readers, much like how rival Barnes & Noble Inc. sells its Nook e-readers in their own sections of its stores.
The report confirms an earlier online article from the site Good E-Reader, which stated similar intentions from Amazon. The store would not be a big-box retailer for Amazon’s sprawling online inventory, but a test to see whether a chain of Kindle stores would be profitable for the company.
The company launched its own publishing business last year, and the store could carry titles exclusive to Amazon.
Some analysts speculate that potential legislation of online sales tax could prompt the company to open stores.
Previously, only companies with physical stores in a state would be liable to charge and pay sales tax. If some states decide that online retailers would have to charge sale tax, then Amazon would have no reason to hold back from opening brick-and-mortar stores.
Physical stores have proven to be successful for Apple Inc., which enjoys some of the highest sales per square foot in the industry. Barnes & Noble has also experienced higher sales due to its Nook e-reader.
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