Amazon will reportedly be opening a physical retail store in San Francisco next week, just in time for the holiday season. This one is only temporary, however.
Geekwire first reported the news, saying that Amazon will be opening a pop-up store at Westfield San Francisco Centre, which is a mall in the downtown area. It will open on October 22nd. The report initially cited anonymous sources, but then updated with confirmation on that and an additional store from Amazon. The report shares the following statement from the company:
“We’re excited to open new pop-up kiosks in San Francisco and Sacramento in time for the holidays so that customers can try out our new devices,” a spokeswoman said. “The team is moving incredibly quickly – already this year we’ve launched Fire TV, Fire phone, new Fire tablets, new Kindle e-readers, and a bunch of new features and services. While customers can already see our products online and at retailers like Best Buy and Staples, we wanted to provide another option to try out our full line-up leading into the holidays.”
While it’s unclear how long the stores will be open, it is clear that they will only be around temporarily. This is a separate endeavor from the one reported last week, which involves Amazon setting up shop in New York City.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the company was testing the concept of a permanent retail store that would showcase its devices and also serve as a place for item pick-up and other customer services. It wouldn’t be a huge Walmart-like store initially, though it the test proves successful, the company is expected to expand the concept to other cities.
From there, it’s not unfathomable that the stores themselves would expand to include more products. Amazon does, after all, already offer multiple grocery services.
For now, however, Amazon appears to be focused on moving some of its hardware over the holiday season, and get sales up for its Kindle and Fire devices. The company certainly launched plenty of such devices this year.
Image via Google Play