Finally, a brick and mortar store where you can buy Kindles! Well, besides Best Buy.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Amazon.com will be opening its very first store IRL, just west of Fifth Avenue on 34th Street:

The site, set to open in time for the holiday-shopping season on Manhattan’s busy 34th Street, would mark an experiment by Amazon to connect with customers in the physical world. Amazon has built its business on competitive pricing and fast shipping. Until now, though, it couldn’t compete with the immediacy of a traditional store. Amazon’s space at 7 West 34th Street, across from the Empire State Building in Midtown, would function as a mini-warehouse, with limited inventory for same-day delivery within New York, product returns and exchanges, and pickups of online orders. A customer could, for example, order a pan in the morning and pick it up that evening in time to use for dinner.

Apparently Amazon has long been considering opening a store, drawing on its years of experience putting mom-and-pop retailers out of business. A Wells Fargo analyst explains, "Same-day delivery, ordering online and picking up in store are ideas that are really catching on. Amazon needs to be at the center of that."



7 West 34th Street (Google Street View)

Amazon has had pop-up stores for its various brands to sell Kindles or Zappos shoes. Last year, they opened one Kindle pop-up in front of the Microsoft store.