Everybody knows nowadays that successful companies need to think ahead to get ahead. But just imagine thinking backward to a simpler time to further a company’s success.
That’s exactly what Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos did last week.
Amazon — the company whose initial premise for existence was to sell books online — opened a bookstore on Manhattan’s West Side, where many such stores were once concentrated.
Amazon, which systematically eliminated thousands of bookstores across America through its terrifically efficient online sales model, has come back full circle.
Well, sort of.
With Thursday’s opening of the new Amazon Books store at Columbus Circle, in what is probably the most expensive mall per square foot in America, the bricks-and-mortar bookseller is back — but it in a completely different way.
While it’s not the kind of bookstore where famous or local authors will be coming to expound upon meaningful passages while you canoodle with a warm cup of coffee in the winter, it is designed to be a pleasurable 21st century shopping experience.
And it’s also a promotional opportunity for Amazon, which encourages shoppers to join Amazon Prime in order to get the best prices on books and free two-day shipping — and thereby become part of the entire Amazon ecosystem, in which just about anything under the sun can be purchased.
Bezos has become incredibly wealthy from serving his customers. He is the second-richest person on the planet, worth $84.5 billion — just a few billion shy of Bill Gates, who is in the No. 1 spot.
The Amazon Books store is a great example of how the most successful companies sometimes do the completely unthinkable.
From bricks to clicks and back to bricks, all in the name of market share. What’s next, Apple selling 8-track tapes and vinyl records?
Aside to all the soldiers, airmen and seamen: Happy Memorial Day, and thank you. Let freedom ring!