A trippy visit to Amazon's bookstore, where $18-an-hour booksellers put out stock the computer tells them to.

...Matching online prices is crucial to the conceit of Amazon Books: the store is not just an overcrowded ex-sushi restaurant with limited selection and a creepily insistent smile in its logo, but a physical extension of the site itself. 

Each book in the store is displayed face-out.This display method limits the stock that can be carried. Amazon Books stock about five titles per three linear feet of shelving, while most bookstores more than triple that. It may also be meant to mimic the way books are presented on Amazon’s site. This fact, the full visibility of all covers, is noted as a distinction between Amazon Books and traditional stores in the Seattle Times writeup of the location. Of course, all bookstores face out books. Which percentage will be faced out in a store is more a question of philosophy and aesthetics than a sign of a radical new approach. Borders, for instance, was known for having a high percentage of face outs. Also a slow supply chain. RIP, Borders...