Speaker 1: What's Up rich on Techi's Rich Demiro here richon tech
Speaker 1: Dot TV. And last week I was so sad when
Speaker 1: I went to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.
Speaker 2: I saw that the Barnes and.
Speaker 1: Noble bookstore has closed. That was sort of an institution there.
Speaker 1: It was at the end of this large pedestrian mall.
Speaker 1: It was a giant bookstore. Every time I went in there,
Speaker 1: I always wondered how it was still there. And here's
Speaker 1: the problem. I never really bought anything there because I
Speaker 1: knew the prices were cheaper on Amazon, and so you'd
Speaker 1: pay sort of full price for these books when I
Speaker 1: know I could just order them online. So I was
Speaker 1: sad to see it go, even though I definitely contributed
Speaker 1: to its demise. But this week I am in love
Speaker 1: with the new Amazon Books in Century City. Century City
Speaker 1: Mall is on Los Angeles's West side.
Speaker 2: It's brand new.
Speaker 1: They just redid the whole thing, like spent I don't know,
Speaker 1: over a billion dollars to redo this place.
Speaker 2: And Amazon Books was there.
Speaker 1: So I was at the mall for some other reason
Speaker 1: yesterday I'll explain later in the week, but I wandered
Speaker 1: into the Amazon Books and I fell in love with
Speaker 1: the bookstore all over again. So if you've never been
Speaker 1: in an Amazon Books, let me explain. It's basically like
Speaker 1: the Amazon website but in a store. So it's very
Speaker 1: fresh looking, very open. They've got a bunch of books there.
Speaker 1: Obviously the selection is not as vast, but they've got
Speaker 1: kind of popular best selling books there, good selection of those.
Speaker 1: They've got some magazines. They've got all the Amazon electronics,
Speaker 1: so the Echo and all the tablets they sell, and
Speaker 1: of course the kindles are there, and then some other
Speaker 1: assorted smart home electronics that work with the Amazon Echo
Speaker 1: as well for your smart home connected stuff.
Speaker 2: So here's the deal.
Speaker 1: When you buy a book, so there's no price tags,
Speaker 1: or there's very few price tags. Some of the electronics
Speaker 1: have price tags, but the books really don't. So if
Speaker 1: you want to find the price for an item, you
Speaker 1: just scan a barcode underneath the book, or you can
Speaker 1: kind of scan the cover using the Amazon app and it.
Speaker 2: Will tell you how much the book is. But here's
Speaker 2: the deal.
Speaker 1: If you're a Prime member, yeah, the prices are just
Speaker 1: what they are online and they change all the time.
Speaker 2: But if you're not a Prime member, you pay full
Speaker 2: price basically most of the time.
Speaker 1: So on the book that I bought, which was Gary
Speaker 1: Vaynerchuk's new book, Crushing It, thirty dollars if you just
Speaker 1: walked in there off the street. But I paid eighteen
Speaker 1: dollars because I'm a Prime member. And then when it
Speaker 1: came to time to check out, by the way, I
Speaker 1: bought three things. I bought two books and a planner,
Speaker 1: and I was so impressed.
Speaker 2: It was about fifty dollars total.
Speaker 1: So when you check out, there is a human there
Speaker 1: to help you check out. They scan the books and
Speaker 1: then they say, hey, are you an Amazon Prime Member?
Speaker 2: Do you have the app on your phone?
Speaker 1: And if you have the app on your phone, all
Speaker 1: you do is you scan a QR code that's sitting
Speaker 1: by the cash register and then it's somehow that links
Speaker 1: you to them and it says, okay, do you want
Speaker 1: to charge this purchase to the credit card on file
Speaker 1: at Amazon? You can pick the credit card you want,
Speaker 1: or I had a credit with Amazon. They asked if
Speaker 1: I wanted to use that. I said no, and that's it.
Speaker 1: You're out of the store in like three seconds. The
Speaker 1: checkout process was so fast they can print you out
Speaker 1: a receipt, or they can email your receipt. Of course
Speaker 1: I did the email one, but that's it really fast.
Speaker 1: And the cashier was asking me if I heard about
Speaker 1: the Amazon Ghost store in Seattle.
Speaker 2: I said, yes, So it seems like they're going to bring.
Speaker 1: Some of that self checkout technology to these Amazon bookstores
Speaker 1: as well. Maybe not right away, but sounds like maybe
Speaker 1: that will happen eventually. But overall, you gotta check out
Speaker 1: the Amazon Books. I love bookstores. I've always loved the bookstore.
Speaker 2: Since I was a kid.
Speaker 1: This is a fresh take on it because the prices
Speaker 1: are actually good. And if you're looking for something like
Speaker 1: a little gift for someone, or even an Amazon Basics
Speaker 1: item like a cable for your phone, kind of a
Speaker 1: charger or a little case or something, or a Bluetooth speaker,
Speaker 1: Amazon Basics are great and they have a large selection
Speaker 1: of those at the bookstore as well. So again, Amazon Books,
Speaker 1: Century City Mall. I really want to go back. I
Speaker 1: could spend a long time in that store. Look at
Speaker 1: I bought three things in the span of like five minutes.
Speaker 1: So and by the way, the book I bought, Crushing
Speaker 1: It was awesome. Started reading it last night and I
Speaker 1: couldn't sleep. I was so excited from the stuff I
Speaker 1: was reading in a really great book. Thanks so much
Speaker 1: for listening. I'm rich Demiro Rich on tech dot TV.
Speaker 1: I'll see you next time.