Amazon plans to have more physical stores: Report

Amazon’s plan to open a new retail stores might be taking shape. According to a report by Re/Code, the CEO of a large shopping mall company said that he believed Amazon was planning on opening 300 to 400 bookstores, sending ‘panic’ through the retail industry. The retail store initiative is being lead by Steve Kessel, a longtime Amazon executive whose team launched the first Kindle e-reader and who is very closely associated with CEO Jeff Bezos as well. The stores are said to feature books and magazines and also push the lineup of Kindle products and other gadgets too. The report does point out that these stores will only sell books which are popular on its website. Amazon is also planning to open a new store in Southern California based on job listings spotted by Re/Code. The jobs could also be in La Jolla or San Diego too. According to the report, there are no immediate plans for a roll-out of 300 to 400 stores, two sources say, but they could not rule out that eventual outcome. The mall company CEO who originally asserted those numbers released a statement saying his comment “was not intended to represent Amazon’s plans.” A previous report states Amazon’s net profit for the fourth quarter, which includes the holiday shopping season, rose to $482 million, or $1.00 per share, in the quarter ended December 31, up from $214 million, or 45 cents per share, a year earlier.