Amazon is reportedly planning on opening hundreds of physical bookstores

Amazon, the largest online retailer in the world, is getting into the bookstore business.

Big time.

The company is planning to open between 300 and 400 brick-and-mortar bookstores, The Wall Street Journal's Greg Bensinger reported on Tuesday afternoon.

Sandeep Mathrani, the chief executive of General Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust that develops, owns, and manages malls in the US, made the comment about Amazon opening the stores during an earnings call on Tuesday.

Amazon's "goal is to open as I understand 300 to 400 book stores," Mathrani said on the call, according to a transcript of the call from Seeking Alpha.

—Dennis K. Berman (@dkberman) February 2, 2016

This won't actually be Amazon's first physical bookstore. The company opened one up in Seattle, where Amazon is based, late last year. Tech Insider's Melia Robinson reported on Amazon Books' opening day and learned it's a bit different than a traditional bookstore.

Books at Amazon's store, for example, don't have prices on them — you have to scan with the Amazon app in order to find the prices, though the prices in the store are the same as the prices online.

Books also feature their average star ratings from their Amazon.com reviews.

Titles are also set out with their covers facing passersby, not with their spines out, like in a traditional bookstore.

Amazon declined to comment.

Update: On Wednesday afternoon, General Growth Properties released a statement saying that the CEO's comment during the earnings call "was not intended to represent Amazon's plans."

Here's the full statement:

General Growth Properties, Inc. (NYSE: GGP) Chief Executive Officer Sandeep Mathrani has indicated that a statement he made concerning Amazon during GGP's earnings conference call held on February 2, 2016, was not intended to represent Amazon's plans.