Quote:
Originally Posted by GlenBarrington
What is in danger is browsing in brick and mortar stores.
|
Correct.
More precisely: what is in danger is the idea of 26,000 square foot regional bookstores that expect buyers to travel significant distances to go browse the racks and see if anything appeals to them. A "stock it and they will come" retail model that expect consumers to do all the work.
It didn't use to be that way: in the 90's, before Borders came to my area, there were 10 bookstores within a 15 minute drive; Walden, B. Dalton, Brentanos, and several independents. Ten years later it was down to two Waldenbooks, two Borders, and one B&N within a 30 minute drive. Now it's down to one B&N and one WaldenBooks, both of which are reducing book shelfspace.
Throughout it all, the Big Publishers have done *nothing* to support local B&M retail. If anything, their reliance on volume discounts has aggravated matters by shifting a large portion of the higher-volume book sales (the NYT "bestsellers") to dept stores and supermarkets.
And now they whine about the world they created and encouraged?
Feh!
No, it won't be murder when they're gone; it'll be assisted suicide.