You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Amazon to open second bookshop in San Diego
Amazon looks set to open its second physical bookshop in San Diego after advertising for an Amazon Books store manager “based in the La Jolla or San Diego area.”
The company is currently advertising for a range of positions for an Amazon Books bookshop in the San Diego area, including an assistant store manager, an Amazon Books associate and an Amazon Books "lead".
The job description for the store manager position reads: “You are responsible for creating a vibrant store culture based on customer obsession, trust, respect, continuous learning and fun…Your goal as a team is to provide best-in-class customer service to anyone visiting the store.”
It adds: “You are Right a Lot when it comes to reading customers and don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach to creating a great customer experience. You warmly welcome anyone who comes into the store and are adept at quickly adapting to the needs of each customer. You are flexible, think on your feet, and exercise great judgment when unusual requests or the most difficult of customers are escalated to you.”
The San Diego Union Tribune has reported that not all local bookshop were “afraid” of the development. Co-founder of Powell’s Books, a Portland, Oregon-based chain, with five locations, Michael Powell, told the newspaper: “We did check out the store in Seattle, and found their model not very compelling to us. I'm not in any panic mode. We've survived Barnes and Noble, I think we can survive Amazon.”
Amazon opened its first physical bookshop in Seattle in November last year, selling 5,000 titles from a 5,500 sq ft space, at the same prices as website. It’s stock is based on customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, popularity on reader recommendation site Goodreads, and its curators’ assessments. Last week, a mall operator Sandeep Mathrani sparked widespread media attention after commenting Amazon was planning to open “300 to 400” bookshops across the US in a call to analysts.
UK trade reaction to Amazon opening a bookshop has been mixed, with some retailers saying they were “horrified” while publishers generally welcomed the opening of another bookshop.
