Amazon Books
The Amazon Books location at Seattle’s University Village. (GeekWire File Photo)

Amazon has picked the next location for another of its brick-and-mortar bookstores.

Amazon Books is coming to Walnut Creek, Calif., according to a report in the East Bay Times, which says the Bay Area city’s Broadway Plaza will be home to the store. Amazon currently has bookstores in Seattle, Portland and San Diego.

Amazon Books
Inside Seattle’s Amazon Books. (GeekWire File Photo)

The Times reported that Amazon spokeswoman Sarah Gelman confirmed that the online retail giant is hiring workers for a store at the high-end shopping center. The company would not say how big the store would be or when it was slated to open.

The first Amazon Books physical store opened in Seattle’s University Village in November 2015. The store sells top-rated books that are also available on Amazon’s website. Amazon hardware including the Kindle, Echo, Fire TV, and Fire tablet, are also available for purchase and “device experts are on hand to answer questions and to show the products in action.” GeekWire toured the store a year ago and rated the experience a success.

Despite San Francisco’s reputation as a great city for independent book sellers, Walnut Creek was in need of a more general-interest bookstore after a Barnes & Noble left last year, according to the Times story. Laurelle Swan, operator of the city’s only independent bookstore, said, “Amazon came in because they saw a need here for new books.”

Swan told the Times she did not view Amazon as a threat to Swan’s Fine Books because her store and Amazon are “totally different things.”

The San Francisco Chronicle also reported on Amazon’s plans, noting that the company plans other stores soon in Chicago, the Boston area (two locations), New Jersey and New York City.

 

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