No One is Safe from Amazon–Not Even Pubs

First came physical book stores and a social media platform, then grocery stores with the Whole Foods merger and now … bars?

GLOBAL–In its latest move into the physical world, digital commerce giant Amazon is opening a pop-up bar in Tokyo to promote the sale of alcoholic beverage on its site in that country.

The pop-up bar will also serve as a bigger push by Amazon to boost its brick-and-mortar presence and promote the array of merchandise sold on its website.

“Amazon Bar will offer a wide variety of drinks procured from across the globe, and offer exclusive products as well as samples of products not yet on store shelves,” the company said in a statement.

The Amazon Bar will be located in Ginza, Tokyo’s prestige shopping district, and will be open for 10 days beginning Oct. 20.

The 78-seat bar will feature an ordering system that will suggest drinks, which will cost between 500 and 1,500 yen ($4.43 to $13.30), and will offer some food. It will also hire sommeliers to bestow wine advice.

The Tokyo pop-up bar is the e-commerce site’s latest push into the physical world. In the past several years, the Amazon has launched a series of physical book stores across the U.S., all of are merchandised based on data from Amazon.com; and it moved into the grocery space earlier this year with the purchase of Whole Foods. Since the acquisition, Amazon has slashed prices at the U.S. grocery chain, leading to a boost in shoppers at the already popular natural foods market.

With physical book stores, grocery stores and now bars under Amazon’s umbrella (not to mention the sites social media play, Spark, it’s hard not to think that Amazon has its eye on world domination, and not just of the digital variety.