In the January '05 Wired, Jeff Bezos is asked "Do physical bookstores have anything to offer that Amazon doesn't?" and replies "One thing is face-to-face meetings with authors. And what Howard Schultz at Starbucks likes to call a third place, where people go and sit and spend time. We humans are a gregarious species; we like to mingle with other humans."

At first I was reminded of my concept for virtual storefronts via interactive digital signage and speedpass-like authentication/express checkout.

But what if Amazon were to maintain micro-storefronts for on-demand author tours and physical retailing? Instead of maintaining a large volume of books, they would ship a modest selection of books to line the walls of the space based on a theme (such as the author and subject matter) entirely selected by their recommendation-engine. The space would instantly become the best bookstore in the city on the particular subject matter and based on what millions of other people consider relevant to that topic at that specific moment in time, while leveraging Amazons unsurpassed catalog. It would trump niche retailers because all of the merchandise would be entirely up to date and cover obscure or emerging topics/trends that a retailer couldn't sustain.

The store wouldn't even need to push the merchandise. It could maintain one of each item and each visitor could be given a handheld scanner with three buttons: one to add the item to their Amazon cart, the other to add the item to their Wish List, and a third to flag the item as a gift.