Amazon Offline : 6 things I Learnt From A Visit to Amazon Books Bethesda

The Facebook Portal Plus at the Amazon Store. It's Huge!

We have been planning to visit the Amazon Store ever since one was opened in Georgetown, Washington DC and later at the Bethesda Row in Maryland.

6 Things that I learnt here:

1) Stuffed Like A Warehouse: In my opinion this store is stuffed probably like the Amazon Warehouses. It seems like everything is all over and you just have to explore and find what you need. Definitely the Amazon Logistics division planned the store and not the wonderful customer experience team at Amazon.

2)  Has a Children's Section: Till my kids grew past the kid's section, the Barnes and Noble Children's section was an enchanting place. Amazon has a children's section as well.

3)  Check Out the Facebook Portal Devices Here:  Amazon Books has all varieties of Amazon devices and smart bulbs,  such as Amazon basics. Surprised to see Facebook's Portal+ and play with it. The version shown in the photo above is huge. I would have loved to have this as a conference speaker for work but not for something I want to share with Facebook friends. If they can have the Facebook portal, why not the Google Home Hub or Lenovo Google Smart Display? Looking for Apple devices, just walk across the street to the Apple Store.


4) Best Buy Style Games : My son was very happy to use the wireless game controllers while using the Amazon Fire TV to play games. That is something I had not known that an Amazon Fire TV stick or cube could do.

5) Amazon Basics: If I had bought one thing today, it would have been the Amazon Basics stuff. USB-C cables, AA Batteries $8+ for 20 or iPhone Chargers all at the bargain Amazon prices. If there was a Amazon store on every street corner, you probably would go there. I needed AA batteries but I am going to buy them either from Costco or from Amazon online.

6) No Trade-in of Amazon Tablets: One of the prime reasons I was here was hoping to avail of Amazon's Device Trade-In to upgrade my Kindle Fire 8 to a Kindle Fire 10. Unfortunately Amazon Books is not the place to do this and I would have to go to Tyson's Corner. Why?

7) No Coffee: I thought all the Amazon Books Stores had a cafe. Not true. Only the Georgetown store has Allegro coffee. Not the Bethesda store. No worries get the locally grounded Quartermaine coffee a few doors down.


Ok, while you can pay with your Amazon App, the store has a cashier line and check out counter. IMHO it is lacking in technology and I would rate it a 3.5 star out of 5 stars. Amazon needs to think customer service if they want offline stores. Not sure is I would go back to this store unless it was closer than the Best Buy or Home Depot and I needed something urgently.