Amazon opened its second bookstore in Massachusetts on April 18, with the opening of a store in the northeastern town of Lynnfield. With an emphasis on faceouts, customer reviews, children’s books, and cookbooks, the store follows the model of its sister store, which opened 21 miles away in Dedham, Mass., in February.
The Lynnfield Amazon Books occupies 4,200 sq. ft. in a large retail center. Prominent displays feature the company’s host of digital devices, and cross-promoted products are interspersed with the selection of books. Unlike the Dedham store, there is no café. Books are discounted for members of the company’s Prime service, and are otherwise full price.
The store will host its first event later this month, opening its doors for nearby Boston’s citywide literacy initiative ReadBoston. According to Amazon spokeswoman Deborah Bass, the store will donate 100 books to the program as part of World Book Day.
Amazon has made substantial inroads in Massachusetts in the last year. In September 2016 the company opened a 1 million sq. ft. distribution warehouse in Fall River. Earlier this year, The Boston Globe reported that the company was looking for as much as 200,000 square feet of additional corporate space in Boston and Cambridge. The company signed a lease in Boston’s Back Bay in February for an undisclosed amount of space.
The Lynnfield store is the company’s sixth to be opened nationwide, and currently has a staff of ten. Books are selected by a team of offsite “curators,” according to Bass. Five more Amazon bookstores are slated to open this year.
