So, you have no choice but to literally judge a book by it’s cover. You use an app to do everything. It’s an essential part of the experience. Books are placed neatly on the shelves with all the covers facing out and have no price tags. It’s hard to even clear your head in Amazon Books because you’re trapped on your phone. The tight layout of the store and constant price scanning process leaves no room to escape into the literary world. The maze of bookshelves and extremely tiny seating area leaves no room to hide and zone out with a stack of comics or relax and absorb yourself in the prologue to a new novel. Sure, there are rows of books separated by genre, from Young Adult novels to cookbooks and the space looks big, carrying thousands of titles, but it feels as packed as a train car during rush hour.

Walking into NYC’s first Amazon Books location - the seventh bookstore it has opened nationwide - the 4,000 square foot space is packed with books, but barely feels like a bookstore. Sadly, it has yet to learn what makes a bookstore great. Amazon isn’t just on the web these days, it’s everywhere. Opening a physical bookstore may seem odd in 2017, but it’s no different than the release of Dash buttons or the opening of Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh food outlets. But Amazon is always up to the task of transforming traditional experiences into opportunities that require you to use technology. Even odder, it’s a physical store from Amazon, the online retailer whose Kindle ebook reader is a prime culprit in bookstore declines in the first place.

Large book chains like Barnes & Noble have been shutting down bookstores for a decade now, which makes it a peculiar day when a new bookstore opens up in the heart of New York City.

Amazon bookstore