Amazon, the cyber store that sells everything, plans to open its first physical store at 7 W 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan just in time for the holiday season. The experimental store will work as a mini-warehouse for some same day deliveries in New York. It'll surely serve as a nice little billboard, too.
The new brick-and-mortar shop is actually across the street from the Empire State Building, so it's clearly primo real estate. That's surely why analysts think that Amazon is opening the space as a marketing effort. It doesn't hurt that the company will be able to show off its (now sizable) lineup of products, including Kindles of all kinds and the new Fire phone. The store will also handle pick-ups and returns.
This is not the first time that Amazons's toyed with the idea of a physical presence, however. Rumors were rampant a couple of years ago that the company was going to open a similar-sounding store in Seattle. But hey, why open a store in a small city, when you can open a warehouse at the foot of the Empire State Building. [WSJ]
Image by Michael Hession