Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Site
The New York City Location to Handle Same-Day-Delivery Inventory, Product Returns
Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -2.02% plans to open its first brick-and-mortar store, according to people familiar with the plans.
The site, set to open in time for the holiday-shopping season on Manhattan’s busy 34th Street, would mark an experiment by Amazon to connect with customers in the physical world. Amazon has built its business on competitive pricing and fast shipping. Until now, though, it couldn’t compete with the immediacy of a traditional store.
Amazon’s space at 7 West 34th St., across from the Empire State Building in Midtown, would function as a mini-warehouse, with limited inventory for same-day delivery within New York, product returns and exchanges, and pickups of online orders.
Opening a physical location is “about marketing the Amazon brand,” said Matt Nemer, a Wells Fargo analyst. “Same-day delivery, ordering online and picking up in store are ideas that are really catching on. Amazon needs to be at the center of that.”
Amazon also may consider using the space to showcase inventory, particularly its devices like the Kindle e-readers, Fire smartphone or Fire TV set-top box, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking.
Operating stores also carries risks. Until now, Amazon has largely avoided some costs associated with retailing, including leases, paying employees and managing inventory in hundreds of stores. Those expenses could imperil the company’s already thin profit margins.
Some details about the New York store couldn't be learned immediately, including the size, length of the lease or amount of inventory that would be housed there. People familiar with the matter cautioned that Amazon’s plans could change, and that the store is an experiment and could be deemed unsuccessful.
If it is successful, however, the New York location could presage a rollout to other U.S. cities, according to the people familiar with the company’s thinking....MORE
The first half of the headline is a riff on "A Bright and Shining Lie", the title of a book about Paul Vann and the American experience in Vietnam.
The book won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer.
Pulitzer is pronounced Pull-it-sir,
