NPR report on Amazon bookstores

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/03/465443099/is-amazon-planning-
hundreds-of-bookstores-analysts-doubt-it

Is Amazon Planning Hundreds Of Bookstores? Analysts Doubt It

Yuki Noguchi

Last November, Amazon did the unthinkable for an online retailer known for undercutting brick-and-mortar bookstores: It opened a walk-in store in Seattle. Now, there's talk that Amazon plans hundreds of them.

On an investor call Tuesday, Sandeep Mathrani, CEO of mall operator General Growth Properties, said: "You've got Amazon opening bricks and mortar bookstores, and their goal is to open, as I understand, 300 to 400 bookstores."

The point Mathrani was making was that retailers that started off online — like Bonobos and Warby Parker — are now increasingly in the market for physical locations. But his seemingly off-the-cuff comment triggered a report in The Wall Street Journal, and then dozens of other news stories about how Amazon — having killed off some major bookstore chains — is now laying plans to become one itself.