Briefly: "Where Will Borders’ Books and Customers Go?"

[SeaKing]

A brief summary fleshing out some details:

"Where Will Borders’ Books and Customers Go?"
Media Decoder, NY Times, Dec 15, 2011

"Any fears that book publishers had about brick-and-mortar stores disappearing were confirmed by one cataclysmic event this summer: Borders went out of business." Continued below:

http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.co...-customers-go/

Who will be next?

[xg4bx]

i would have bet my arm that b&n would have disappeared before borders. imo b&n has always stunk and was the last resort book store.

i went to amazon. its kind of refreshing not being "told" what to read by both advertising and what the store decides to stock.

[fjtorres]

The issue isn't necessarily about specific vendors vanishing. Though, of course, indie bookstores can and will go out of business as they have been folding, piecemeal, for decades now.
The retail issue facing the industry is how much aggregate shelf-space will be available for print books and how it will be allocated. Borders vanishing took out a big chunk at once but that is not the only way shelf-space is declining; B&M retailers can and are devoting more shelf space previously devoted to pbooks to other products. B&N, for example has been moving floor space from books to games and toys. If they reallocate, say, 10% shelf space, that would be the equivalent of 40-some stores. And B&N has already been quietly closing stores on a case by case basis. Add it up and you could be looking at the equivalent of a small chain, 100-stores worth, vanishing over a year or so.

A second issue is what the remaining book shelf-space is allocated to; how much gets allocated to the annointed "bestsellers", how much to the midlist, and how much to the backlist. The superstore business model was originally predicated on stocking a deep catalog (for the time) but the rise of online retailing raised the ante for catalog depth to levels no B&M retailer can profitably match without adopting POD and that doesn't seem to be a high priority for most of them.

The near term challenge is unlikely to be another catastrophic implosion but a steady, sustained erosion of shelf space, and greater competition among publishers for it is more likely. Dont be surprised to see B&N and/or BAM follow Indigo's example and demand marketting fees from publishers just to stock their books as well as returning more books and starting deep-discounting sooner in the release cycle.

[taustin]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The issue isn't necessarily about specific vendors vanishing. Though, of course, indie bookstores can and will go out of business as they have been folding, piecemeal, for decades now.

That trend is, apparently, reversing, and has been for several years.

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...ores-increase/

Over 20% increase in membership in American Booksellers Association since 2005.

(Though they do note that those that do best tend to offer stuff other than just books.)

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by taustin

(Though they do note that those that do best tend to offer stuff other than just books.)

Ding. Ding. Ding.

Even if its a newstand or an onsite coffee shop and lounge, it *is* lost shelf space.

It the end it comes down to revenue per square foot.
Pbooks alone are no longer cutting it for a lot of B&M retailers. Which means that as they diversify and adapt (if they're to survive) they won't be particulary beholden to the publishers.

[teh603]

I haven't gone anywhere yet. Borders was never my first book source- used book stores are more in my price range- but it means that I can't save coupons and buy D&D books at 30% off like I was doing for a while there.

One thing for sure, I'm not likely to buy much from Amazon or B&N. Most of my purchases lately have been either from DriveThruRPG or DriveThruComics, or from a brick-and-mortar game store.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Borders was badly managed. Their fate doesn't necessarily have to befall others.

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The issue isn't necessarily about specific vendors vanishing. -----------
The superstore business model was originally predicated on stocking a deep catalog (for the time) but the rise of online retailing raised the ante for catalog depth to levels no B&M retailer can profitably match without adopting POD and that doesn't seem to be a high priority for most of them.

-----------------

fjtorres,

what is POD?

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

fjtorres,

what is POD?

Not fjtorres, but I can answer that one. POD = print on demand.

[Fringecup]

I now buy nearly all my books from either Amazon or Kobo, with numerous visits (and purchases) to other online ebook vendors. Off the topic a bit, but I discovered "Steampunk" books that way and I love them! I just wish that more of the books in particular series were digitized, as in one case, out of nine or so titles, only the second one is available as an ebook.

[carpetmojo]

Borders UK went a good while ago.

[SeaKing]

There are no real book sellers around where I live.

The Ingle's I frequent in a small town used to have a wide aisle section for books. On one side, hardbound books, shelves about 30 plus feet wide displaying the front of books, spines, both paper bound and hard bound. Best sellers plus others. Divided into sections. It had a space on the other side of the wide aisle with magazines. A lot of magazines. There were chairs, benches in the extra wide aisle and some islands with books laid out on them.

That is gone now. Removed about 6 to 8 months ago. Now there is about 20 feet of magazines, on one side of a standard size aisle. Still it is the best selection of magazines in the town.

Some years ago, there was a News Stand in the town. I knew the owner from way back. Not so much personally, but through his presence at his News Stand. He had been there forever. He was the News Stand owner which made him an important friend to have. He had everything, from comics to the Wall Street Journal, and the latest best sellers and all the good Sci Fiction writers, computer magazines, music magazines, electronic magazines, flying magazines, and on and on. I ordered books through him. I talked to him about the books. He knew everything that was to know about science fiction books, about science fiction authors, their upcoming books, and their lives. We would commiserate about the change in tastes of the book buying/reading public. About the passing of authors.

The thing about the New Stand, was that I could drive up, park a few yards from the door, walk in, nod or wave at my friend who was always there if it was open, check the displays, find a new sci-fi paperback, peruse it quickly front and back, read a few pages, and I knew whether I wanted it, or didn't want it. If I had a question my friend could answer it. My friend told me he would call me if a new book of an author I liked was in. I said no. I liked the surprise and elation of finding a good book.

All that is gone. My News Stand friend died. The Stand died with him.

There is a Barnes and Noble in a nearby city. It would take me about 2 plus hours to get there driving. There is a smaller Books a Million in a smaller town about an hour plus away. Both these stores have reduced very much their book stock. Plenty of coffee and knick-knacks for sale though. Good for Christmas presents. There was a bigger Books a Million book store in the city a long time ago. It closed. For a few years, the store front was closed except for yearly "book fair sales." Those were nice. You know the kind. Tons of books brought in, and sold for a dollar or two for the most part.

The big malls in these two towns used to have small to medium sized book stores but with nice varied collections. All gone now.

Now I am left with the remains of Ingles, and the drug stores for magazines. The nearby Bi-Lo does have besides the same magazines, about a 5 foot section of paperbacks but they are 95 percent mostly female type trash novels. A Walmart further away does have a lot of pop and children's books, plus about a 3 foot wide shelf of Sci-fi.

That is it. We aren't just on line because we want to be. It is also because we have to be.

[basschick]

the borders by our house had the most expensive videos and gifts of literally any place i've been - and that's saying something. many of their DVD's were priced at double what virtually any online store, target, walmart and so on charged. i don't mind paying to shop locally, but 100% more? gimme a break.

they also had dismal parking that i really disliked, odd selections - not the only borders that had that - and rarely seemed to have the first book of any series in stock. when i tried ordering books in, twice they never showed. and they almost always had a long checkout line.

i'm not amazed that borders went out of business. i'm sorry that they didn't long since hire professionals to map out a better plan for their business - it would have been nice to have a new bookstore in the neighborhood rather than a large, empty store front.

[SeaBookGuy]

I had a free membership with Borders, receiving regular discounts; in addition, I was able to get $15 of Bordersbucks per year redeeming E-rewards scrip (for online surveys). I'm not paying B & N to be eligible for discounts, so it's Amazon for me. I rarely buy new paperback books anyway.

One thing that did frost me with Borders was that they refused to allow Bordersbucks on agency e-books, claiming that was "discounting"; however, when using them on print books, the scrip was very clearly applied as a gift certificate/credit form of payment, the sale price itself being unaffected.

[Lemurion]

We used to split between Borders and BAM - now we stick to BAM locally.

I do pay for the membership - but we spend about $200/month there so it pays for itself pretty quickly.