Amazon Opens Its First Physical Bookstore

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Amazon's celebrating 20 years of putting bookstores out of business by opening one of its own. The Verge reports that Amazon is opening a permanent store in Seattle today called Amazon Books. It's the first physical bookstore for Amazon, and it's going to operate just like the book section of the website.

"The books in our store are selected based on Amazon.com customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, popularity on Goodreads, and our curators’ assessments," Amazon's VP of Books Jennifer Cast said in a store announcement. "These are fantastic books! Most have been rated 4 stars or above, and many are award winners."

Curators will have some input though, and all the books in the store will have the same prices as online, according to The Verge. Amazon Books will also be stocked with all of the brand's devices, like Kindles, Fire Tablets, the Echo, and Fire TV.

This first physical bookstore might be just the beginning for Amazon. The Verge's Jacob Kastrenakes writes: "Theoretically, we could start to see more of them. Amazon has been experimenting with physical stores this year, and other possibly physical stores have been reported on."