After reading these articles on independent bookstores closing their doors, I’m wondering if small towns are not the best place for small box booksellers.
Via Books, Inq., New York City’s Coliseum Books is closing: Competition is killing independent U.S. bookstores. The owner says, “Chain-store sales and the Internet are far more practical. People will go to places closer to them. Places like Barnes & Noble.”
Can you blame anyone for doing that?
Also in New York City, the landlord raised the rent on Murder Ink, “the oldest mystery-themed bookstore in the world,” and has forced it out. The owner, Jay Pearsall, says, “I was a little outraged that a well-run bookstore couldn’t make it in the best book-buying neighborhood in the world, but there’s no business model that can work.”
I wonder what the blogosphere’s role in small business America is. Do we generally support or undermine high-service, select-quantity booksellers? I know of two new independent bookstores in my area, both downtown though in different towns. Are they fools waiting for a pit to fall into?
No Mom and Pop that sells a readily-available, commodity product can survive. Doesn’t matter what the product is. Sorry, but the Internet opened Pandora’s box–end of the story.
Even “full service” means nothing. Why? Ask these questions:
1. Will the store have the book I’m looking for in stock?
2. Is their price competitive?
3. If it’s not in stock, how long will I wait to get it?
Your Mom and Pop can never beat the Internet on any of those three questions. The only possible solution they have is to recommend books. Considering that Amazon does that better electronically than some independent bookstores do personally, there’s nothing an independent offers that can trump an online store apart from ambiance and browsing. And frankly, I never buy from browsing. I know what I want and I buy it. If I want to truly browse a book, I get it from my local library and have chance to truly read it before I decide I need it in my personal collection.
Frankly, I’m not sure how the brick and mortar chain stores make it, either. I bought a copy of the Chicago Manual of Style (retail $50) new online for $20 less than Barnes & Noble sold it in one of their stores. Even crazier, it was $10 cheaper online at B&N than at one of their regular stores!
Good points. I think small stores must sell online too, but maybe that only works with used and rare booksellers.
Despite all this pessimism, I’m still thinking of opening a store called Overpriced Books, where perhaps everything in the store is 10% more than the price on the cover. Hmm, that could be a decent merchandising line.
“Overpriced Books: Why shop online when you can pay more here?”
My wife and I opened a used bookstore in a small Kansas town (pop. 6500) back in November 2004. We sold good quality paperbacks and hard covers at less then 1/2-cover price. After a good first month sales dropped to nothing (as did the number of people coming in the door) and we had to close the store in February 2006. We spent thousands of dollars on advertising (radio, TV, newspapers, online directories, fliers, booksignings, coupons, gift certificates–you name it, we tried it) and could not get people in the front door. Even though the nearest bookstore was over an hour away, the people in town and surrounding environs were not in the least bit interested in stopping in. I did hear “Amazon.com” mentioned once as a reason why someone didn’t visit the store.
The sad part was that in the end we couldn’t even give the books away for free–we ended up taking several thousand to the dump.
I think another point here is that most of the studies out there show people read fewer and fewer books each year. This trend shows no sign of letting up.
Also, with wages stagnant or even dropping, people can’t afford to buy books anymore. A hardback novel costs $25+ now. I don’t know about you, but that’s a hefty chunk of change.
I prefer to read from hardbacks, so I do the smart thing: I get my books from the local library. The library system, even in a tiny town like mine, is advanced enough to get books from all over the country. I live in Ohio, but once received an interlibrary loan book from a library in Oregon! When that’s possible, why buy?
And yes, as someone who wishes to be a writer, I understand my view takes money out of the pockets of writers, but I don’t know what the best answer is. With new trade paperbacks already over the $10 mark, reading for pleasure’s becoming a rich man’s hobby.
I’m sorry to hear that, Frank. Thanks for telling us about it.
Dan, I can’t go that far. $25 does feel like too much for a new hardcover, but $10-14 for paperback isn’t too much. Games are usually $40-60, aren’t they? Maybe it’s $30.
Booksquare is talking about book prices too.
http://www.booksquare.com/archives/2007/01/02/2251/
Phil,
I don’t play video games, either! Video games? Now THAT seems like a massive waste of money and time. Rots the brain, too. At least that’s what I tell my son.
One last comment:
If I read one paperback a week at $12, I’ll spend $624 on those books alone. That’s a pretty substantial number.
If I decide that one read is enough and I probably won’t revisit most of those books, I could sell them to a half-price bookstore. Since most half-pricers specialize in used books rather than new, I undermine the Mom and Pop new bookstore AND stiff the author and publisher. In order to recoup the money lost to used books, the publisher raises prices and cuts advances to the writer, sustaining the vicious cycle.
None of this helps anyone in the long run.