Last week, when Sandeep Mathrani, CEO of Chicago-based General Growth Properties (GGP), said that online retail giant Amazon plans to open 300 to 400 physical bookstores, he let loose a flurry of speculation. Is the company that built its fortunes on the Internet while threatening the brick-and-mortar store model recasting its business strategy? Or does Amazon have something more exciting and experimental up its sleeve? A day after Mathrani’s comments, GGP clarified that his statements were “not intended to represent Amazon’s plans,” while Amazon declined to comment on “rumors and speculation.” Nonetheless, the ensuing debate on Amazon’s future has centered on how the e-commerce giant could use technology and data analytics to create a new experiment with brick-and-mortar stores.…