An Amazon brick-and-mortar bookstore is headed to New York City

By Williams Pelegrin Published January 9, 2017

amazon bookstore nyc — TimmyTechTV

At the time of this writing, Amazon has opened brick-and-mortar bookstores in Seattle, San Diego, and Portland, Oregon, with plans for two more locations in Chicago and Massachusetts. You can now add New York City to the list of planned locations, since the online retail giant confirmed it will open a bookstore there as well, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The store, which will occupy 4,000 square feet in the Shops at Columbus Circle area in the Time Warner Center, is slated to open sometime this spring. Amazon’s announcement confirms a previous rumor insofar as a store opening is concerned, though the rumor alleged it will be located in the Hudson Yards development, which is slated to open in late 2018. This does not dispel the rumor, since Amazon might still open another bookstore in the development.

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The increased presence of Amazon’s bookstores looks to be directly correlated to the pressure online shopping has placed on retailers, which resulted in lower rents and increased availability of space. This does not guarantee an Amazon bookstore’s success, though it certainly helps when you do not need to pay as much each month and have plenty of space available to you.

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As for the logistics of Amazon’s New York City location, anyone can enter the store, but expect price disparities based on whether you are an Amazon Prime member. Prime members will pay a book’s Prime price, while non-Prime members will pay the book’s non-Prime price. This change went into effect for all three current bookstores, with non-Prime members able to sign up for a 30-day free trial when checking out.

Amazon wants more folks to sign up for Prime, of course, which is likely the reason why the company implemented the change.

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Williams Pelegrin

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Williams is an avid New York Yankees fan, speaks Spanish, resides in Colorado, and has an affinity for Frosted Flakes. Send…

News

Amazon to shut 68 retail sites, including its bookstores

The opening of an Amazon Books location in NYC.

Amazon has revealed plans to close all 68 of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, 4-Star locations, and pop-up sites in the U.S. and U.K. in a surprise move revealed on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

The company will, however, continue to operate Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, and its high-tech Amazon Go stores that let you select your items and leave without having to wait at a checkout. It will also stick with plans to open its first Amazon Style clothing store in Los Angeles later this year, the company told the New York Times.

Gaming

The New York Times has already changed Wordle solutions

A person plays 'Wordle' on an iPhone.

The New York Times is interfering with the possible guesses and answers for Wordle. The new version of the popular word-based puzzle has deviated from the original, which means that some players might not get the same solutions to Wordle puzzles as everyone else anymore.
On January 31, Wordle was acquired by the Times to bolster the news publication's casual gaming offerings. While Wordle isn't gated behind a paywall like many feared just yet, the Times is making gameplay changes despite promising it wouldn't.
The Times' version of Wordle doesn't allow certain problematic words -- which BoingBoing details -- to be used as guesses or solutions anymore. That's understandable, but it has also removed some ordinary words like "fibre" and "pupal" just because they are obscure or too similar to other words.
Even worse, The Verge points out that this change means the Times' Wordle skipped over "agora," February 14's original word. This means that players who haven't refreshed their browser since starting to play the game will now see different solutions from everyone else.
The Times did officially comment on the matter, telling ABC News reporter Michael Slezak that "we are updating the word list over time to remove obscure words to keep the puzzle accessible to more people, as well as insensitive or offensive words."
https://twitter.com/MikeySlezak/status/1493344574260924420
While The New York Times does recommend that people just refresh their browsers to access the new list, a puzzle game that's only supposed to have one answer now having multiple is a big problem. It also compounds issues some players were already having with win streaks carrying over.
This whole debacle shows that even Wordle wasn't immune to acquisition woes, even if they weren't the paywall-related problems we originally expected. Avid Wordle players are best off refreshing their browser or redownloading the game for the smoothest experience, but this issue will likely explain any future confusion one might have if someone posts a Wordle with a different answer.

Gaming

Move over, Bungie: New York Times acquires Wordle

A person plays 'Wordle' on an iPhone.

Wordle, a popular word-based puzzle game that's dominated social media feeds in recent months, was acquired by The New York Times Company on January 31. It was the second significant gaming-related acquisition of the day, following Sony's $3.6 billion acquisition of Destiny developer Bungie.
The New York Times did not share the specific price of the acquisition, but did say in its announcement that it paid creator Josh Wardle an amount "in the low seven figures." That's a much smaller figure than Sony's acquisition, but Wordle likely reaches a lot more people than even Destiny 2 currently does.
Wordle is simple, engaging, and easy to share on social media. Image used with permission by copyright holder
While The New York Times is primarily a news publication, it has expanded into casual gaming in recent years. "The Times remains focused on becoming the essential subscription for every English-speaking person seeking to understand and engage with the world," its article on the deal said. "New York Times Games are a key part of that strategy."
Wardle claims New York Times Games played a part in the October 2021 creation of Wordle, adding that "this step feels very natural to me."
It sounds like The New York Times could eventually put Wordle behind a paywall. "The company said the game would initially remain free to new and existing players," The New York Times article notes, with "initially" being the keyword there. Thankfully, Wardle promises that Wordle will still be free and that wins and streaks will be preserved once the game transitions to The New York Times' website.
https://twitter.com/powerlanguish/status/1488263944309731329
The New York Times highlights how it wants to grow its digital subscriptions to 10 million by 2025. Locking Wordle behind that subscription would undoubtedly drive some people to subscribe, but The New York Times also risks Wordle losing relevancy and upsetting a happy player base if it does that.
That's not something we'll have to worry about for now, as Worlde is still available for free online.