For too long, the world stood back and watched as Amazon’s online-only prices obliterated bookstore chain after bookstore chain, wiping out many publishers with them. Now, in an incredibly cruel twist of irony, Amazon.com is taking over some square footage in the University Village Mall in Seattle. Not only is the effrontery compounded by the fact that it’s inserting itself into the time warp we call a mall–where places like Waldenbooks and Barnes & Noble once thrived–but also by the sheer gall of doing something it rendered every other bookseller incapable of.
Why now, Amazon, why now? Was the cornering on the grocery store market not enough to satisfy your insatiable desire for figures and profit margins surpassing the billions? There is no why when it comes to Amazon, only how much can we make while dry anally raping as many others as possible? By working to kill off what’s left of Barnes & Noble, Amazon is also capitalizing on the semi-revival independent bookstores have been enjoying by giving their interior design aesthetic the cliche vibe one expects of such “lower-tier” establishments: crammed bookshelves, hardwood floors and actual people working there. Of course, rather than the lovingly thought-out handwritten book recommendations you might expect from such store employees, the reviews next to the carefully curated selection on display will be culled from customer reviews.
The creep factor of this entire operation leads one to believe it won’t be the only location Amazon has in mind to open in the U.S. Let’s just hope the expansion stays on the Pacific Northwest with the hub of that other evil empire, Starbucks.
