Amazon Bookstore Locations: Company's First East-Coast Brick-And-Mortar Shop Debuts In Massachusetts

In a twist of ironic fate, brick-and-mortar bookstores could be resuscitated by Amazon’s newest venture — opening a string of physical Amazon locations across the U.S.

The e-commerce giant opened its fourth concrete retail spot Tuesday — its first on the East Coast — in Dedham, Massachusetts, the Los Angeles Times reported. And the e-tailer has no plans of stopping there. A Lynnfield, Massachusetts location was set to open later this year at the Lynnfield MarketStreet Mall, according to the Boston Globe.

New bookstore locations were also planned for Paramus, New Jersey; Walnut Creek, California; New York City; and Chicago. Existing bookstores include three other locations on the West Coast.

The Massachusetts Amazon bookstore from Tuesday stands at around 5,800 square feet and opened its doors in Legacy Place Mall. It offers books from travel guides to novels as well as Amazon electronics like its Fire streaming products and Echo speakers. The store even has a coffee shop. A preview event was hosted at the store’s location Saturday.

Although the store functions exactly like any other local shop, it also carries over features from its online marketplace — like its starred reviews.

“Beneath every book is a review card where we include a little bit more information with some of those things that you’re familiar with at Amazon.com,” Amazon spokeswoman Deborah Bass told WBUR. “So, each book includes a review from a customer and it also shares the star rating. And all of the books featured in this store are four stars and above out of five stars.”

Despite the presence and popularity of e-readers and online publications, a Pew Research study recently revealed that Americans still valued reading actual print. In a Pew survey published in September, 65 percent of Americans said they'd read a print book over the last year, which was more than four times the amount of those that listened to an audio book and over double the number of those that had read an e-book.