Amazon bookstore opens in Paramus

Having a bookstore in New Jersey’s largest mall is a good thing, shoppers said, even if selling books isn’t the primary reason for the store’s existence.

The new Amazon bookstore at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus opened Wednesday. It is Amazon's first physical store in New Jersey and only the eighth nationwide.

Critics and industry analysts have called books the lure to get consumers to sign up for Amazon Prime memberships, download the Amazon shopping app, or buy Amazon Kindles, Echos, Fire tablets, or other electronics.

But on opening day, the first shoppers in the store went straight to the bookshelves.

“It’s clearly not a traditional bookstore with rows and rows of books, but I am glad to see books in the mall,” said Raymond Coughlin of Washington Township. Coughlin said in the past he used to comment to his wife that the mall was something of an “intellectual wasteland, with not one book or record store.”

“I’m so happy to have this kind of store here again,” said Tom Santoro of Moonachie, who was shopping with his wife, Carmen. “I prefer to hold a book in my hand. There’s nothing like flipping through the pages."

Westfield Garden State Plaza last had a bookstore as a tenant in 2011, until the bankruptcy of the Borders bookstore chain. Borders opened a 23,000-square-foot store at the mall in 2007, as part of the addition of a movie theater wing.

The Amazon store, at just under 4,000 square feet, is one-sixth of the size of the Borders store and carries far fewer book titles than the typical independent bookstore. The store carries about 3,000 titles, while most independent bookstores typically carry three to four times that number.

WHAT TO KNOW: Amazon bookstore in Paramus

Amazon says its bookstores feature a highly “curated” selection, made up of a mix of Amazon.com bestsellers, books that have received positive reviews from Amazon.com buyers and books identified through its Goodreads and book club platforms. “We set a quality bar for the products in our store,” Amazon said in a statement.

The store doesn’t accept cash, only credit cards and payment through the Amazon smartphone app. There are no prices on the books, and scanners in the store list two prices for each title: the discount price for Amazon Prime members and a list price for non-members. For Bruce Springsteen’s "Born To Run" memoir, the non-member price was $13 more than the $19.50 Prime price.

Independent booksellers in North Jersey and near the other seven locations where Amazon has opened bookstores say the online giant's bookstores shouldn’t affect their businesses too much because of the limited selection. They also note that they have years of experience surviving in the face of Amazon competition.

Walter and Pat Boyer, owners of Bookends in Ridgewood, said they visited the Amazon bookstore in Columbus Circle in Manhattan, which opened last month, to check out Amazon’s new venture.

“I found it to be very cold,” said Walter. “Employees walking around with headsets, not necessarily engaging with customers.”

“Talking with a live person is really the benefit of an independent bookstore,” Walter said, “where you’re consulting with somebody, one to one, who is going to be giving you their personal views on the book.”

Displaying only highly rated books “takes away the excitement of finding a new book,” said Pat, “rather than ones already pre-selected as something they think you will like.”

The Boyers don’t think the new Paramus store will have a significant impact on their business, and said they are on track to have their best year in 15 years of owning their store.

Amazon’s “impact from online sales is much much greater than an individual store can have,” Walter said.

Kenny Sarfin, owner of Books and Greetings in Northvale, called the store opening “ironic.”

“Amazon put all the little bookstores out of business and then wants to go back in the bookstore business,” he said.

Paramus Mayor Richard LaBarbiera was among the first visitors to the Amazon store on Wednesday, and said landing the first New Jersey Amazon store, and the first in a traditional suburban mall, was a coup for the borough.

“There is nothing I like reading more than seeing the words ‘first’ and ‘Paramus’ in the same sentence,” LaBarbiera said.

Email: verdon@northjersey.com

On the web

Watch a quick video tour of the new Amazon Books store at Westfield Garden State Plaza. Visit njersy.co/amazonbooksparamus