The Death of the Bookstore

[Angry Monkey]

Barns & Noble better not close down where I am!!!

 

[Teelie]

I still prefer the dead tree format to reading on a screen and my mini library of books backs that up. That said, it's hard to find good books for cheap sometimes and other than Amazon or Alibris my only real source here is Books-A-Million.

 

[Kane52630]

College girls that actually read are a little too savvy, you can't sweet talk them. Gotta use some intellectual wit to get them up in the bed.

pfft, you're just not trying hard enough.

 

[BlackLantern]

the Borders in my area has been closed for a few months now, Ill miss it but I was an actual customer, not a layabout who just hung out in there reading and never bought anything

the Barnes and Noble that is across the street from it is still there and doing ok as far as I can tell

 

[darkseid26]

As long as Barnes and Noble holds Criterion DVDs, I'll keep them in business.

 

[Duke]

It's a shame that it's going out of buisness, but some of the prices they have were just too much. I wanted to purchase a paperback I saw at one of the locations a few months ago & saw it for a lower price online.

 

[redhawk23]

In Germany, for a certain amount of time after their initial release books are not allowed to be sold for less than the msrp. This allows for a lot of smaller shops to remain in competition with the chain stores. Seems like a decent idea. I enjoy cheap books, but I would hate if Amazon was the only choice, just how I hate how few movie rental shops are around.

Im going to miss my local boarders, it was one of the few places I consistently shopped and a lot of times it was a hangout meetup place, not to mention a number of midnight book releases over the years.


Their DVD prices were atrociously high though. That never made any sense to me.

 

[Pink Ranger]

lol do you live in Toronto?

anyways there are a bunch of bookstores downtown and stuff, I don't see them going out of business anytime soon.

Yeah, it's strange that the big bookselling business is doing badly in the states, but Chapters-Indigo seems to be doing well up here. I'm not going to do the tired and predictable "Americans don't read" routine, but I think it might have to do with the respective business practices of the two companies.

 

[TLH]

Yeah, it's strange that the big bookselling business is doing badly in the states, but Chapters-Indigo seems to be doing well up here. I'm not going to do the tired and predictable "Americans don't read" routine, but I think it might have to do with the respective business practices of the two companies.

Chapters/Indigo is doing well because we -- currently working at one -- sell more than just books now. We sell eReaders and other electronics (tablets, cameras, etc), DVDs and CDs, tons of gift items/accessories, cards, kids toys etc...

Two years ago 80% of our profits came from books. Now just over 60% does.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Chapters/Indigo is doing well because we -- currently working at one -- sell more than just books now. We sell eReaders and other electronics (tablets, cameras, etc), DVDs and CDs, tons of gift items/accessories, cards, kids toys etc...

Two years ago 80% of our profits came from books. Now just over 60% does.

It goes to show that two companies can be in the same "sunset industry," but one will succeed by practicing innovation and adapting to change, while the other one doesn't.