I checked out the Amazon Books store on M Street around Thanksgiving, mainly for novelty’s sake. It’s the sort of bookstore that I can see doing better than the older book retailers (maybe) because it doesn’t have a lot of depth in its titles. The books there are popular/consensus titles that are popular on Amazon, and so it’s a good place to see a physical version of the literary spirit of the moment, grab a coffee, browse, etc. Abha Bhattarai wrote on the opening of this Amazon Books earlier this year:

The online behemoth, which has helped drive a number of traditional bookstores out of business, is hoping its loyal online following will translate into in-store customers on Georgetown’s M Street NW, in the same building that Barnes & Noble once inhabited before shutting in 2011.

At 10,000 square feet, the store is among the largest of Amazon’s 15 bookstores. It includes 5,600 book titles — all of which are displayed with their covers facing out — as well as dozens of tablets and smart-home devices on display for customers to test. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.)

Instead of price tags, each book comes with a review card that shows its star rating on Amazon.com and includes a snippet of a customer review.