Amazon opens new store, 4-star

Amazon is opening a new kind of store in New York
City.
Amazon

• Amazon is
  opening a new store concept called Amazon 4-star on Thursday,
  the company announced in a blog post.
• The store is located in New York’s Soho neighborhood, a
  hotbed of shopping in Manhattan.
• The store will only feature items that customers have
  rated four stars and above, as well as products that the
  website’s data says is trending and on customers’ wish
  lists.
• It opens just in time for the holidays but is a
  permanent store.

Amazon
is letting its customer ratings do the talking at its new store.

Called Amazon 4-star, the new concept will only stock items that
have been rated four stars or above, on average, by customers on
Amazon.com, according to a blog
post announcing the new store. That means it will only
include the best of the best — Amazon says the current assortment
averages 4.4 stars.

It opens on Thursday in New York City.

The assortment will run wide, from Amazon’s
own devices and other consumer electronics to kitchen
and home products. Toys and games are also a focus, as are
Amazon’s original focus, books.

Amazon will use data from sales and customer wish lists to
display trending or wished-for items, and it will also include
items that are locally popular. 

The store is located in New York’s Soho neighborhood. Though it
opens just in time for the holiday season, it’s not a holiday
popup. The store is a permanent fixture in the neighborhood,
which has seen plenty of other online-only brands open stores in
recent years.

The newest store takes a page from the company’s line of Amazon
Books stores, which charge customers full suggested retail price
unless the buyer is a Prime member. If they do, they instead
receive the Amazon.com price, which is often at least a little
bit cheaper. Digital price tags will show both the full price and
the Amazon.com price, which frequently changes based on Amazon’s
secret pricing algorithm, so customers can easily decide.

Amazon 4-Star is just the latest foray into physical retail by
Amazon, which has been expanding its Amazon Books stores, opening
seasonal pop-ups in malls and other locations, and reportedly
greatly expanding its automated Amazon Go stores.