At first, there was the website. But now, there are the stores. Amazon opened its first physical book store in Silicon Valley on Santana Row in San Jose. And the concept resembles a mix of website and book store.

What you notice at first is the much more limited amount of reading offers than a traditional book store would give. All books on display are shown with their full covers. The categories are a mix of the usual ones, such as non-fiction or children books ages 4 to 7 years, but other categories are more like the ones you find on the website. „Highly rated – 4.8 Stars & Above“ or „if you liked these…“ There’s also a category „Most-Wished-For Books.”

The prices? The store doesn’t ask the cover prices, but the same they ask on the website. And those are often significantly below the officially recommended prices.

A lot of space is dedicated to Amazon Echo – the digital, voice-controlled assistant – as well as the electronic reader Kindle.

Here are a few pictures from the new Amazon book store:

This article has also been published in German.