Amazon is opening another bookstore and this one is in Chicago

Amazon’s next bookstore will be in Chicago, showing the e-commerce giant’s growing ambition in the physical retail space.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Amazon has confirmed it’s planning to open its next bookstore in the Lake View region of Chicago by next year. Amazon’s first bookstore opened in Seattle’s upscale University Village mall last fall.

This is the latest in the web company’s expansion into brick-and-mortar retail. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in May that he “definitely” plans to open “additional stores,” without specifying exactly where or what type of stores it’ll be.

Chicago would be Amazon’s third bookstore location. According to the LA Times, signs posted in front of a building near UC San Diego show Amazon’s building a new bookstore at the Southern California university, although the company never officially confirmed it. There are also rumors of a New York location being in the works.

Recode’s Jason Del Rey previously reported that Amazon is putting a lot more focus on its bookstore business, putting long-time exec Steve Kessel in charge of the whole operation. The team is planning to open stores that sell things other than books, although it’s unclear what they will be, according to the report.

Amazon’s bookstores are slightly different from the traditional stores. No prices are shown next to the items, because prices fluctuates based on the price online. Each book comes with a user review and ratings from the Amazon website. Amazon is even working on an app that lets you pay without having to go through a checkout counter, according to Re/code.

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

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