Amazon.com may soon open its first physical store, at a prime site in Midtown Manhattan, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
Amazon, the online juggernaut whose expansion helped derail a number of retail chains, plans on opening its first full-fledged store across from the Empire State Building, at 7 West 34th Street, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The area is also near Macy's flagship store, and is one of the city's most heavily trafficked zones. Macy's draws more than 20 million annual visitors, according to the 34th Street Partnership, a business-improvement district.
"Foot traffic on 34th Street is unparalleled," said Chase Welles, executive vice president at SCG Retail, a real-estate-service company, to the Journal.
The 12-story building on 34th Street is owned by Vornado Realty Trust, and once housed an Ohrbach's department store. It now has Mango and Express stores at street level.
There are two loading docks at the back of the building.
The site will double as a mini-warehouse to support same-day delivery, returns and order pickups within N.Y.
Interested customers can expect the store to open in time for the holiday shopping season. It may also display Amazon's proprietary products, such as its Kindle line of e-readers and tablets, Fire smartphones and video-streaming boxes.
If the store is a hit, Amazon may expand to other cities, the Journal reported.
Amazon has not commented on the store publicly yet.
The store would mark a big move for the online site, which has capitalized on its Internet business model and the cost-savings of doing away with a vast physical network.
Recently, Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has led a number of initiatives that have mandated a physical presence in cities: lockers that temporarily hold customer purchases, for example, and a rapid expansion of grocery and same-day delivery.
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