Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
We won't.
Offering a smaller selection at higher prices is going to be an even less viable model in the future.
But I want to echo Kali's point that this is not really about e-books. B&N and Borders have been bleeding customers to Amazon for about 10 years - and starting about 2005, Amazon had double digit growth every year (often 20-30%) while Borders and B&N had no growth, very low growth (1-2%), or even a small loss. The vast majority of people still buy paper books - but they're buying them at Amazon.
And part of the problem is that Borders and B&N massively over-expanded in the 90's/early 2000's. There are a lot of locations with a Borders and a B&N within a half-mile of each other - just closing down one of those competing shops would do a lot for the bottom line of the remaining shop.
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I disagree about the mom and pop bookstores not succeeding.
We are witnessing the "smaller selections" already. BN hardly carries any diversity of titles anymore, even popular classic authors aren't getting on the shelves.
A well run mom and pop bookstore could cater to the needs of the local interest and while prices could be higher (but then again BN charges full retail so this is unlikely) the store would only need a smaller client base to be successful. I think it could work. Also, a smart idea for mom and pop bookstores would be to offer ordering of books for people like the big chains do, but use something like Amazon.
Then again, the only business I'd ever have an interest in running would be a book store/cafe.