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Old 09-19-2017, 03:53 AM   #1
darryl
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Who will fill the gap if B&N collapses

Nate posted an interesting article on his blog:

https://the-digital-reader.com/2017/...ll-print-dead/

PG over at the Passive Voice linked to and quoted Nate's article, and expanded upon it, adding his thoughts on the collapse of Borders as it applied to Nate's premise. Nate summed this up in a single sentence.

Quote:
The major publishers are dead because they bet against digital, which is the future.
The Passive Voice link, to which I contributed in the comments, is here:

http://www.thepassivevoice.com/2017/...print-is-dead/

This prompted me to give the subject a little thought. Many have been predicting the demise of B&N for some time, and each subsequent event seems to add to such speculation. The collapse of B&N would of course be a cataclysm for not only the US brick and mortar book retailing industry, but also for the Publishers, who may lose at one stroke much of their print distribution network in the United States.

Also, of course, Amazon has been opening retail stores, and has announced their intention to open more after what seems to have been some successful real world testing of the concept. There has been much speculation on Amazon's reasons for this. No consensus arose, but a quite popular explanation was that at least one major reason was for Amazon to collect more information about customers, as well as promote its products.

But, if the speculation about B&N is correct, there may soon be a huge vacuum in the US brick and mortar retail book industry. And nature, it is said, abhors a vacuum. But it is not time for the supporters of Indie book stores to rejoice at the thought of a coming renaissance for their much beloved shops. It is surely naive to believe that Amazon has failed to see the same signs as us mere mortals, and likely much earlier. So we have a huge cashed-up online retailer which has been opening physical book stores and announced its intention to open more. At around the same time as a huge opportunity for retail brick and mortar book stores is, at least in my inexpert view, likely to arise. Coincidence? Luck? Or is Amazon about to fill some or most of the coming vacuum? The only reason I can think of for them not doing so is if they feel there are anti-trust concerns.

Last edited by darryl; 09-19-2017 at 04:01 AM.
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