[fjtorres]

It is a good idea to cast a skeptical eye at mainstream media hype over the latest great "Amazon killer" hope. So far, most last as much as QUIBI, over in video. (As in, not very long.)

As exhibit (A), here's the latest from New York's landmark, THE STRAND:

https://slate.com/culture/2020/10/st...ers-covid.html

On Friday, New York City’s legendary Strand bookstore announced it was in trouble. With revenue down 70 percent because of the pandemic, owner Nancy Bass Wyden warned in a post on social media, the “loans and cash reserves that have kept us afloat these past months are depleted,” and the 93-year-old landmark is fighting for its survival.

Just as so many businesses and institutions have since March, Bass Wyden turned to her loyal customers for help, asking them to spend their money and spread the word, using the hashtag #SaveThe Strand. But alongside encomia from celebrities and Slate’s former editor in chief, another chorus arose, asking why Bass Wyden, a multimillionaire who is also the wife of a U.S. senator, was passing the hat rather than raiding her own piggy bank. As an article in the Baffler laid out in detail last month, the store received a Paycheck Protection Program loan of between $1 million and 2 million in April with the purpose of protecting the 212 jobs spread across its three locations, including the 188 workers Bass Wyden laid off in late March. Ultimately fewer than two dozen union jobs were restored, and Bass Wyden put her personal fortune to work purchasing stock in Amazon, a mortal enemy of brick-and-mortar booksellers she described as a necessary step toward keeping the Strand afloat.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...-plea-for-help

“We’ve survived just about everything for 93 years,” proprietor Nancy Bass-Wyden said in a statement, of the store her grandfather founded in 1927. “The Great Depression, two world wars, big box bookstores, ebooks and online behemoths. We are the last of the 48 bookstores still standing from 4th Avenue’s famous Book Row.

“Because of the impact of Covid-19, we cannot survive the huge decline in foot traffic, a near-complete loss of tourism and zero in-store events.”

Bass-Wyden said revenue was down nearly 70% from 2019. Though a government loan and cash reserves saw the store through the first eight months of the pandemic, she said, “we are now at a turning point where our business is unsustainable”.

Earlier this year, thanks to disclosures necessitated by her marriage to Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon, Bass-Wyden was revealed to have spent between $115,000 and $250,000 on purchasing stock in Amazon, the “online behemoth” that has done most to damage independent bookstores.

Bass-Wyden said she made the purchase to support the Strand.

“It was necessary for me to diversify my personal portfolio and invest in stocks that are performing,” she said then. “I have to make sure that I have the resources to keep the Strand going.

This is NEW YORK, the center of the anti-Amazon movement, willing to give away 25,000 jobs than see Amazon make a buck. And they won't support their "landmark" bookstore. Even though it has its own good online presence.

NYC Strand Bookstore SOS from Millionaire Owner Not Getting Sympathy After She Bought a Lot of Amazon Stock

Nancy Bass Wyden, owner of the Strand Bookstore in the East Village, sent out an SOS this afternoon. The Strand like all businesses, is in trouble. She says revenue is down 70% and that the business–after receiving PPP loans– is “unsustainable.”

Bass is the wife Oregan Senator Ron Wyden, who I told you months ago looks like a crusading liberal on the outside but has his own agendas.

Bass does, too. Her “bat signal” this afternoon was met with a lot of skepticism. That’s because she’s been buying hundreds of thousands of dollars in Amazon stock while complaining that Amazon is destroying the independent book selling business.

The rationale? Amazon is a good buy, and the money she makes from the stock helps her keep The Strand running.
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If you don’t have much sympathy for Bass Wyden, it’s understandable. I don’t either. But New York it as a crossroads. Either we support her, or we stand to lose The Strand. It sounds from all her mishegos that she wouldn’t mind shutting down and spending her days watching tumbleweeds in Oregon. So we’ve got no choice.

The Strand has a very good online presence, and ordering books from them is as easy as ordering from Amazon. So why not just do it? I’m going to go over there tomorrow and buy some books in person. But just replace Amazon with them on your phone or computer. Saving the Strand is more important than taking it out on Bass Wyden. She has us over a barrel.

They're not alone.


Over on the west coast, Exhibit (B) is Powells, which has done most everything anybody in their business could--they're nationally known, a destination store, have done online for a couple decades, have supported ebooks since the PDA era, and do big business in used books. They've even taken advantage of Amazon merchant services.

Yet they're in trouble and have been since at least 2008.

From December 2008:

https://www.mhpbooks.com/powells-in-trouble/

One of the country’s most prominent indie bookstores, which is also perhaps the only online retailer even slightly competitive with Amazon.com, is in trouble. A brief AP wire story says “Powell’s Books is asking employees to scale back their hours or take sabbaticals to cope with disappointing sales.” The report adds that “like many other retailers, it is seeing the impact of the recession on sales.” Chief of operations Ann Smith “declined to discuss the possibility of layoffs.”

From Feb 2011:

https://www.oregonlive.com/business/...s_on_powe.html

Ryan Van Winkle, a union representative for Powell's Books employees, said today's e-mail informing staff of a 31-position layoff left the Burnside store feeling like a morgue.

The layoffs, announced publicly by Powell's around 4 this afternoon, represent more than 7 percent of the retailer's 400 employees -- not counting management and security guards.

Van Winkle, a union representative for ILWU Local 5, said the laid-off employees were predominately full-time and most were retail floor workers. About 25 percent, he said, worked in Powell's technical group that managed its website.

In an e-mail memo sent to employees this morning, Powell's wrote "Sales for this fiscal year are down and we expect this trend will continue. The largest decreases have been in new book sales. We see this as a clear indication that we are losing sales to electronic books and reading devices."

In addition to the layoffs, the memo said that Powell's reduced benefits to non union-represented employees by initiating a pay freeze come July 1, suspending the company's 401(k) contributions effective Feb. 21st -- both for at least a year. Employees who are members of the union will receive complete pay and benefits, the company said.

And, most recently:

https://www.businessinsider.com/powe...-impact-2020-8

Powell's, one of the largest and most iconic independent bookstores in the US, is ditching Amazon.

CEO Emily Powell wrote in a letter to customers on Wednesday that the bookstore would no longer be selling its wares on Amazon's marketplace. Powell's was founded in 1971 and takes up an entire city block in Portland, Oregon.

"For too long, we have watched the detrimental impact of Amazon's business on our communities and the independent bookselling world. We understand that in many communities, Amazon — and big box retail chains — have become the only option," Powell wrote.

"And yet when it comes to our local community and the community of independent bookstores around the U.S., we must take a stand. The vitality of our neighbors and neighborhoods depends on the ability of local businesses to thrive. We will not participate in undermining that vitality."

When all else fails, blame Amazon.
Even if it brings in a lot of business.
Just not enough.
(Plus they're in Portland.)

Powell said that Amazon's marketplace was "hard to give up, sort of like smoking" given that the e-commerce giant has historically been a "big sales generator" for the bookstore.

Ultimately, though, selling on Amazon is cost-intensive for small businesses like Powell's, thanks to expenses related to advertising and providing ultra-speedy shipping.

"No one goes into the book business expecting an easy path, and each year typically brings its share of surprises and challenges. This year, of course, is like none other in memory," Powell wrote in her letter to customers.

It's a crappy business where making money requires BIG volume to overcome the high overhead. And getting worse by the day.

Even the best-run outfits were in trouble *before* the pandemic.

Paying a commision for what amounts to online referrals is going to help when Amazon wasn't with full hosting services?

It addresses none of the real problems: high costs and low margins.
Strikes me as clinging to straws.