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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Books Will Bookstores Die in 2009?

Posted by Paul Constant on Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 11:43 AM

I know I've written about this a lot, but the hits just keep coming:

Futurismic wonders if this coming year is going to be basically the end of the line for bookstores. And it links to this Techdirt post:

Past studies have shown that an active second hand market helps to boost the sales of new goods, because it makes those goods more valuable to folks who recognize they'll be able to resell them on the second hand market later...Obviously, just selling books is going to make less and less sense, but we've seen retailers that have worked hard to turn their stores into destinations, where there were good reasons to go and buy stuff, rather than just being a physical version of what you could get online.

And there's a comment on that Techdirt post that's maybe the most depressing blog comment I've ever seen:

This is the way my local bookstore is. They have all kinds of stuff other than just books for sale. It's called "Walmart".

Comments (9) RSS

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Take "bookstore" and substitute "store which specializes in any one item" and you're onto something -- toy store, electronics store, kitchenware store...

Posted by twilight of the specialty chain on December 30, 2008 at 11:49 AM

Paul, it's the chains & the indies not selling used books already that will feel it. Working in Used books at my store I've seen a huge rise in people bringing stuff to us; it's the recession, the need to cover bills, the urge to still buy books, but recycle what they have already.

What people need to realize is that Amazon, ABE, Alibris all take cuts from the indie booksellers selling on their websites-- biblio.com is where you deal directly with all the indie bookstores that sell used books too.

And I have lots more to say on this subject, but a comments forum is too short for it... a discussion for another time perhaps?

And no, 2009 is not the end of the indie bookstore, not if I have any say in it...

Posted by Vlad on December 30, 2008 at 12:12 PM

BUY BOOKS- SHOP LOCAL!
another reason to support your local bookstore that you love and BAN Wal-Mart.
Fuck Wal_Mart.

Posted by Betty on December 30, 2008 at 12:34 PM

Yay, it's great that you guys are starting to notice that local book stores need serious help to stay a float. Too bad you guys didn't realize this 6 months ago when my parent's store went under, but good for you guys, seriously.

Posted by danton d. on December 30, 2008 at 12:47 PM

Vlad @2, this is exactly the right place to discuss it. Let 'er rip.

Posted by Fnarf on December 30, 2008 at 12:58 PM

What was your parents' shop, Danton?

Posted by Fnarf on December 30, 2008 at 2:30 PM

Um, much as I like Amazon, they sell almost all the same junk that Wal*MART does (in addition to many, many more titles of books, DVDs and CDs).

We keep hearing rumors that Borders may bite the big one in early 2009. Kind of a shame - remember when Borders used to be good?

Posted by Laurie Mann on December 30, 2008 at 3:07 PM

Wal-Martization does worry me. It's more than Wal-Mart; if you think their book selection is poor, you should see the horrors that lie within Fred Meyer. Due to the weather, we were forced to do our Christmas shopping there (and in the Greenwood Market), and there was nothing, literally NOTHING, that a sentient person would want to read. It was all diet books, brain-dead political books of the "100 things" variety, or worse (they had a big stack of "The Case Against Barack Obama", delightfully unsold, hopefully returnable), romance novels, vampire novels, novels based on comic books, novels based on video games. Shit, shit, shit. We ended up getting gift certificates to Barnes and Noble, which is weird, buying a GC for one store inside another.

Posted by Fnarf on December 30, 2008 at 3:23 PM

If you like local bookstores, you should check out Arundel Books at 1001 First Ave, corner of First and Madison. We carry new and used books. And no cats.

Chris
Arundel Events Guy

Posted by Arundel Books on December 31, 2008 at 2:19 PM