Amazon.com is planning to open hundreds of brick-and-mortar bookstores, the head of a major US mall operator said. Such an expansion, which Amazon itself has not confirmed, would position the world’s top online retailer as a competitor to booksellers such as Barnes & Noble. At present, Amazon operates a single bookstore in its home city, Seattle. “You’ve got Amazon opening brick-and-mortar bookstores and their goal is to open, as I understand, 300 to 400 bookstores,” Sandeep Mathrani, chief executive of General Growth Properties, said on Tuesday. He was responding to a question about mall traffic during a conference call with analysts, a day after the second-biggest US mall operator reported quarterly earnings. Amazon spokeswoman Sarah Gelman declined to comment. Amazon recently opened its first bookstore in Seattle’s University Village, where visitors can also test-drive Amazon’s Kindle, Fire TV and other devices. In-store and online book prices would be the same, Amazon said in November. Barnes & Noble, the largest US bookstore chain, operated 640 bookstores across all 50 states as of 1 January. The Wall Street Journal first reported Mathrani’s comments earlier in the day. Kevin Berry, vice-president of investor relations at General Growth Properties, declined to comment beyond what was said during the conference call.
Amazon's plan to open hundreds of book stores is sure to hit booksellers, such as Barnes & Noble and Books-a-million; at present the major US online company only operates a single book store in Seattle. Barnes & Noble, the largest US book store chain, operates 640 book stores across 50 states.