Most Well-Read Cities in America
Amazon knows a lot about its consumers. Whenever you shop at Amazon or any online store, you reveal to them your tastes and shopping habits. That revelation is stored in their database so they can slice and dice it to analyze your shopping habits and predict what you may need and want.
It's worth mentioning the infamous 2012 pregnancy case which involved Target and an unsuspecting father. A man in Minnesota noticed Target has been sending her daughter coupons for baby clothes and cribs as if she was pregnant. And actually she was, but her father had no idea, and hence his shock and surprise after seeing those coupons. Target sent her those coupons because that's what the store's computers suggested after they analyzed her shopping activity. Target knew she was pregnant before her father.
Amazon looked at book shopping behavior of Americans and released a list of what it calls the most well-read cities in the United States. The ranking, of course, is not absolute and is based on the sales data of books only on Amazon.com. The cities with more than 500,000 residents on a per capita basis were considered.
Some interesting trends were observed in the list of 20 cities.
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was the top-selling book in Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; Albuquerque, N.M.; and San Diego, Calif.
- There are three cities in the list from California: San Francisco, San Diego, and San Jose.
- Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto by Aaron Franklin topped the list in Austin, Texas - duh!.
- Fifty shades of Grey by E. L. James was the highest selling Kindle title in Las Vegas, Nevada. Also, people in Las Vegas purchased the most romance titles.
Here is the complete list:
1. Seattle, Washington
2. Portland, Oregon
3. Washington, D.C.
4. San Francisco, California
5. Austin, Texas
6. Las Vegas, Nevada
7. Tucson, Arizona
8. Denver, Colorado
9. Albuquerque, New Mexico
10. San Diego, California
11. Baltimore, Maryland
12. Charlotte, North Carolina
13. Louisville, Kentucky
14. San Jose, California
15. Houston, Texas
16. Nashville, Tennessee
17. Chicago, Illinois
18. Indianapolis, Indiana
19. Dallas, Texas
20. San Antonio, Texas