Amazon is looking into making more brick-and-mortar bookstores in the United States, starting with 400 physical shops across the country.
The news comes from General Growth Properties CEO Sandeep Mathrani during an earnings call with analysts on Tuesday.
"You've got Amazon opening brick-and-mortar bookstores and their goal is to open, as I understand, 300 to 400," he said.
According to The Wall Street Journal, it's unclear how Mathrani came up with the number of stores, but the publication speculates that he could have gotten in touch with real-estate executives of Amazon regarding their plans.
BREAKING: Amazon expected to launch 300-400 PHYSICAL bookstores nationwide. $AMZN. More on https://t.co/COVFAb5nl3. HT @GregBensinger
— Dennis K. Berman (@dkberman) February 2, 2016
Back in November, Amazon opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore at the University Village open mall in Seattle. The shop contains a wide selection of books of about 5,000 titles along with Kindle and Fire devices. It also features online book reviews from other customers and curated sections.
This move is comparable to the 640 stores that Barnes & Noble has established and the 255 locations where Books-A-Million has set up shop. These two companies are the largest book retailers in the United States, where they spent many years to achieve the positions they are in now.
Amazon has a lot of catching up to do, and it's no easy feat to launch hundreds of retail outlets in a short time. Considering the preparations needed to start a store, such as choosing the sites, settling leasing agreements and staffing each store, it could take the Seattle company quite some time to get things off the ground.
While Amazon currently only operates one physical bookstore in Seattle, it does have kiosks in Westfield Corp malls that allow customers to purchase devices, cases and clothing. In other words, the company has already gone beyond online shopping to a certain extent.
The online retailer isn't alone in starting physical stores, as fashion website Bonobos and eyeglasses merchant Warby Parker are following suit.
Mathrani didn't say when Amazon will roll out its brick-and-mortar bookstores, and it's not even certain whether he knows it or if he's in any position to make comments about the online retailer's plans. Representatives of the Seattle company also declined to give a solid release date, telling Ars Technica that they "don't comment on rumors and speculation."
The CEO of the Chicago company also mentioned how the return rates of online-bought goods were high at physical stores. He estimated it to be pegged at 38 percent, saying that this could be another reason why Amazon is planning on going through with the bookstore expansion.
It's also worth mentioning that Amazon's first physical bookstore had a huge impact in the book ecosystem in Seattle, where the manager of the 116-year-old University Book Store said that the "sky is falling." Needless to say, if the online retailer pulls off its ambitious plans to open 400 brick-and-mortar bookstores in the United States, then the aforementioned effect will traverse across the nation.
