Open Letter to Jeff Bezos

(Seattle, WA - February 9, 2010) -

Dear Mr. Bezos,

As a resident and small-business owner in perennially under-appreciated Pioneer Square, I would like to submit an idea to you.

Elliott Bay Book Company is leaving its anchor location in Pioneer Square, and moving to Capitol Hill. I think this would be a fantastic space for an Amazon.com retail store.

Sure, this concept goes against your model on a multitude of levels, but given your foray into hardware, you need a space to show off your product(s). The Kindle would benefit from a place where the consumer could touch, feel, and operate it. A retail store would drive sales, encourage downloads of all products, and would be a great place to feature or launch other concepts/products. This location also has a wonderful space for author readings. Continuing this tradition would bring good will to Amazon within the book community, and allow you to highlight/drive your author services and announcements, e.g. 70% royalties using our Digital Text Platform.

Lastly, it would contribute to the city of Seattle. An Amazon.com store would become a tourist destination in Seattle, and Amazon would lift Pioneer Square from historic district to a hip, tech-savvy area. P-Square already houses several startups, a Microsoft office, many gaming companies and galleries, and incredible coffee at stylish Zeitgeist and Caffe Umbria. Still, even with ING Direct's arrival in P-Square, no business truly headlines the district. You wouldn't be moving into a soulless mall like an Apple store. You'd establish your physical presence by pulling up one of the heartstrings of Seattle: Pioneer Square.

I hope you'll give this some consideration.

Sincere Regards,

Greg Aden
CEO
NetRead Software and Services, LLC
graden@netread.com
http://www.netread.com/