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.
Barnes & Noble's plan to open hundreds of book stores is sure to hit booksellers, such as Amazon and Books-a-million; at present the major US online company only operates a single book store in Seattle. Amazon, the largest US book store chain, operates 640 book stores across 50 states.