We visited Amazon's first neighborhood bookstore and saw how it could change the industry for good

To stay in the store, a book needs to be 4 stars or higher, as rated by Amazon's millions of customers, Cast said. 

"When our customers walk in, we want them to say, 'Oh wow, all these books are highly rated by customers.' We also know that when people come in to look for books, they're usually looking for, or want to discover, one or two books. So thousands of books is enough books to be able to find one or two books you love."

"Our insight into what we could do different was, let's take this data, let's give every single book a review, and let's give every single book a rating," Cast said. "It's a very different experience then, and you get a very different level of information just at a glance.

"And with the barcode you can scan the cover of the book, so if you really want to dive in and like reading those 50, 100, 200 reviews and you want to read more, you can easily get to that."

"We decided that instead of trying to squish in as many book as we could and have a bunch of spines, we would put the book's cover out and let the books communicate their own essence, which also gives you the space for the review card with the customer rating," Cast said.

"Oftentimes, people feel uncomfortable 'showrooming' [browsing items in store but buying online]," Cast said. "You want to buy books for your Kindle but want to discover them in a physical store? Fantastic. You want to ship those books home and you're a Prime member and you don't want to wander around with them? Fine. Want to add them to your wish list for the holidays? That's fine.

"What we've found is, most customers want the immediacy of finding a book they like and buying it online — fine. We know that people consume books in many different ways today, and we encourage and embrace all of them."

"We really believe we can create a great mousetrap," Cast said of the clicks-and-mortar strategy. "We always say, better bookstores always have their different focuses, and we knew that we had something new to bring to customers."

"We all have our different 'special sauce,' as we call it," Cast said. "Our special sauce is knowing the reading habits and passions of a city through our Amazon.com data. As we learn about the Southport neighborhood, we will get to know our Southport community.

"It's a different kind of store for us. It's in a neighborhood. We're going to find out what makes the neighborhood tick, we're going to listen to their recommendations, learn more about what they buy and don't buy, and you'll see us evolve.

"For us, we're a company of builders, and we're customer-obsessed. We're going to do our best to delight them. We do have a book reading on Saturday, story time for young readers, and we will do lots of stuff in the future."

"If you look and see what independent bookstores have said about Amazon Books, most of them have said we're all in the same business — we want more books in the hands of more readers," Cast told Business Insider.

"And many have also said great bookstores will be successful, and there's room for a lot of different types of bookstores. There is no bookstore in this neighborhood, so we're excited to bring our special sauce, our data with heart, our great curatorial team focused on bringing great books to people, and we think there is lots of room for great bookstores in the world.

"What we want to do is do what most great bookstore owners want to do — which is put more books in the hands of young people and book-loving adults. "

"The Kindle came out 10 years ago, and for the past couple of years people have been asking for a place to test-drive our devices and ask questions about them," Cast said.

"As we added devices — from the Kindle to the Fire tablet and Fire TV and Echo — our ecosystem has become more complex. We now have Audible, Prime Video, Prime Music, and Amazon Music. So there's a place to get those questions answered."

Cast said Amazon is eager to be in different cities, different types of malls, and different types of neighborhoods. It has opened five stores so far and has plans to open at least five more.

"Our big focus is to be where there are readers," Cast said. "So far, we have been on the West Coast and the East Coast, and we want to bring a store to different cities. Chicago is one of the world's greatest cities and we wanted to be here.

"Chicago is a city of readers — passionate readers."

"There is really an old-fashioned mission to provide a great bookstore for customers," Cast said. "We hope to become part of the fabric of the neighborhood. We've had lots of kids and families in the store.

"And we're known for great customer service. We're excited to take our customer obsession and apply it to a physical store where we can have a relationship with you and learn more about your life and help you find great books."