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Blind Freddy could have seen this coming. A few factors stopped me shopping at A&R
1) most of the long term older staff came across snobish, almost like "I'm so above you, I work in a book store and you are here buying a Tom Clancy. Who buys a Tom Clancy? Smart people read x artsy fartsy book"
2) Price. I completely understand overheads and keeping a shop front open in a city CBD, so pricing will be higher than some of those online stores, and I would have preferred to support local, but most of the time the books I was buying (before ebooks) were near 100% dearer than buying online.
3) Kind of related to point 1, lack of atmosphere. I just felt going into an A&R that up the front would be numerous copies of latest release books, then the middle section felt like a scattering of select novels, and up the back dark and gloomy kids books and self-help section. Forget trying to get decent non-fiction.
4) Online prices for books from A&R differed to store price. Why? I felt even more like I was being ripped off buying from store.
5) ecommerce is one thing, and yes companies do have to move that way, but I feel A&R didn't move with customer demands. IMHO a customer wants either good price for their books, or if at current price offer more than some teenager who is cheap wage for a weekend or cranky worker being disgusted with your choice of book. How about a couch A&R?
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