Fashion
Online retail giant Amazon has decided on Oregon as the location of its third brick and mortar store.
The new store will open at the Washington Square mall just outside Portland, in what US media describe as a “bookish metro area” – Tigard.
The retailer appears to be choosing sites which house Apple stores and are frequented by university students.
Amazon’s first bookstore opened in Seattle’s University Village mall and its second in San Diego’s Westfield UTC mall.
While Amazon describes its stores as bookstores, John Mutter, editor of bookseller newsletter Shelf Awareness, prefers to call it “an electronics store that sells books”.
“It has a very misleading name,” he said.
One of the US’ much-loved specialist bookstores Powell’s Books is headquartered in Portland and CEO Miriam Sontz told USA Today it was no surprise Amazon should choose the city for one of its first physical locations.
“When asked why he robbed banks, Willy Sutton reportedly replied ‘because that’s where the money is.’ I am certain that Amazon has the data to show that opening a store in the Portland area will be financially beneficial to the company,” she said.
Mutter predicts Amazon will open 12 to 18 stores over the next two years or so.
