[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by some call me tim

If ebooks take off (and I think they will), there will be less and less reason for people to go out to b&m stores.

Actually, it should be "if webshops take off (and I know they will), there will be less and less reason for people to go out to b&m stores.

The demise of b&m stores isn't caused by ebooks, but rather by webshops, like Amazon.

We have an awesome bookstore here in town. It has a good selection and it's a good atmosphere. But the few pbooks I've bought these last few years, I either bought at Amazon or Bol.com (major Dutch online bookshop). Because it's much easier than going to town. And they're always open, even if I want to buy in the middle of the night, instead of closing at 6.

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Taking personal feelings out of it, if they're not selling a product that the majority of consumers want anymore, then why should they stay open?

I think, if it gets to that point, the smart ones will start selling eBooks.

Originally Posted by dickon25

I've said before on MR that I still love to browse in bookshops, even though I rarely buy pbooks now. My ideal solution would be a store which let me select a book and then download it there and then from a terminal in the corner. Perhaps when the format wars have resolved themselves and the days of proprietary readers/formats have gone, that model will help keep the B&M stores alive.

I agree. In the future you'll be able to buy hard cover, soft cover, paperback and ebook formats. I know of a (minor) publisher here in the Netherlands, that has started to sell its books on an USB stick. You can also buy this stick in a b&m store.

Originally Posted by ardeegee

For myself, almost all the books I read now are ebooks or are bought from Amazon or Ebay (and the rest are used books from the occasional visit to charity stores like Goodwill and Salvation Army.) I don't remember the last time I walked into a physical book store, but it has to be at least 2 or 3 years ago. Even 10 years ago when I was still using a physical book store (Books A Million) it was almost always to buy magazines, as I was already getting my physical books cheaper from Amazon.

So-- for me-- it isn't a matter of wanting book stores to close, but that their continuing presence is no longer important to me one way or the other.

See, I'm not the only one!