Last week there was some very interesting news developing about Amazon. If you missed it then in short the news was that Amazon was planning on opening a new brick-and-mortar (physical) store in New York. The supposed location is in Manhattan (34th Street) and not far from the flagship Macy’s store. However, this was only a rumored report with no actual confirmation provided by Amazon. Fast forward to this week and the new news is just as intriguing. To be clear, there is currently still no actual confirmation that Amazon are planning to open a New York store however it does seem that Amazon will certainly be opening a physical store in San Francisco. In contrast to the New York report the San Fran store has been confirmed by Amazon who confirmed a report by GeekWire on the Cisco store. Furthermore, it now seems it won’t be only San Fran to get the Prime treatment with also confirmation that a store will also be located in Sacramento.
Now it is worth noting that according to Amazon’s response both Northern Cali stores will be pop-up stores (kiosk) so although ‘real’ stores it is expected they will only be temporary ones. Again in contrast the New York store is expected to be a permanently located store. Either way though and at least for the holidays if you are based in either San Fran or Sacramento then you should not be surprised when you double-take after walking passed an Amazon store. It seems quite ironic actually that Amazon have no physical stores as they are one of the World’s biggest retailers. However with the latest news it seems Amazon will be extending their hold on the retail sector significantly by introducing these new stores. According to the official response, the Amazon spokesperson commented that although their products are rather prevalent in Best Buy and Staple stores they wanted to offer customers “another option” to get hands-on with their products. Further noting “leading into the holidays” which suggests the retail giant is planning on increasing their holiday output.
In terms of when and where (exactly) details are rather sketchy for the Sacramento store. However in terms of San Fran it does seem the pop-up store/kiosk will be located in the Westfield San Francisco Centre Mall (Market and Fifth Street) in downtown San Fran. It also seems the store will be up, running and open as early as next week with the suggested opening date October 22nd. Whether this move will help with the disappointing Fire Phone sales is unclear. Either way though if you are based in San Fran, Sacramento and maybe even New York then this year you might find you are no longer doing your last minute holiday shopping on Amazon but maybe in Amazon.