Who will fill the gap if B&N collapses

[Ken Maltby]

What "Gap"? Why should a book (paper or electronic) be any different from all the things that are increasingly being purchased Online? If there is no need to actually hold it in your hand, to insure it fits, or insure that it is really what it claims to be, more and more are buying online. As for "specialty items", Amazon's approach offers all kinds of "outside" vendors of almost arcane nature. At some point, if it can be bought online, it will be most often bought online. ( We already have commercials where young people are buying furniture using their smartphones.)

Luck;
Ken

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by darryl

Your other points are good ones. I don't live in the US and have never had the pleasure of visting an Amazon books store, but my understanding is that they stock a relatively small number of titles carefully selected using their extensive online data for the area. I also understand stock turns over fast. Early criticism was levelled at these shops for the relatively paltry number of books carried. However, I posted once before that perhaps a better way to look at an Amazon store was as if there was a transparent wall at the back looking into an Amazon warehouse with just about every book you could want available. In cities with Amazon warehouses close by it is not inconceivable that you could order a book not on the premises, go off and have a coffee and cake for an hour and come back to pick up your book. And yes, Amazon stores promote their hardware, promote books and other products, promote Prime Membership. The potential advantage of even one such store in each large US City are enormous.

I live in the US, and I've never even SEEN an Amazon bookstore, much less been in one! If you don't live in a handful of large cities, you aren't likely to see one either. These things appear to cater to the hip and the terminally young. Those of us in flyover country will likely never see one.

I suspect part of their purpose is to make Amazon 'cool' and 'hip' to those with options. Amazon already has the customers like me, we are pretty much internet shoppers by need, not choice!

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

I live in the US, and I've never even SEEN an Amazon bookstore, much less been in one! If you don't live in a handful of large cities, you aren't likely to see one either. These things appear to cater to the hip and the terminally young. Those of us in flyover country will likely never see one.

I never expect to see (let alone shop in) an Amazon store in my lifetime.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by GlenBarrington

I live in the US, and I've never even SEEN an Amazon bookstore, much less been in one! If you don't live in a handful of large cities, you aren't likely to see one either. These things appear to cater to the hip and the terminally young. Those of us in flyover country will likely never see one.

And yet the same could be said for every other chain that eventually expands.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Your post tells me one thing. People in your area don't buy books at Walmart.
Perhaps you do not understand how media is stocked at your local Walmart.
There is a company that does all of Walmart's media. They look at the demographics and what actually sells. We kept our tiny book and magazine section but they took out over 50% of the movies and TV shows. They just didn't sell well at that Walmart. The big seller there is video games. They also took out most of the computer games.
Note: The books are only the best sellers.

What I have noticed is Walmarts by the interstate have more media including books than in town Walmarts.
This is based on the extensive research of one person who has visited numerous Walmarts and has 4 in her area. North has better media, South and East are well stocked and have more choices in grocery. West is the little store where you might or might not get what you need. HEB moved into pretty much the next parking lot and is on the corner of two main streets. It is now easy to get into that Walmart, the HEB go early and hope for a parking place.

Not sure what your point is or if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me.

Your local stores may be book wonderlands. I dunno. But can you tell me that any of the Walmarts/grocery stores in your area have expanded their book section in the last ten years? I would guess their share of floor space has shrunk. Which was my whole point.

[Philippe D.]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

What "Gap"? Why should a book (paper or electronic) be any different from all the things that are increasingly being purchased Online? If there is no need to actually hold it in your hand, to insure it fits, or insure that it is really what it claims to be, more and more are buying online.

There is something different here - one book is not a perfect replacement for another.

B&M bookshops do some important and useful work: they select the books they want to display, and can give some useful advice. My wife (the home's heavy reader) won't buy any book online, because she explicitly wants to support the local bookshops (Note that she's not paying more for them because of this, because we have a law in France that prevents books from being discounted - specifically, books have to be sold at the editor's fixed price, with a maximum allowed discount of 5%). I'd be very happy to also support the same bookstores, but having converted to ebooks, I just cannot - they don't sell ebooks. So all I can do is take their advice, and then buy my books online...

I was thinking maybe this specific price protection law we have was one reason why local (independent) bookshops have stayed so far away from ebooks, but from sakura-panda's message, it seems they have mostly done the same in other places as well.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

And yet the same could be said for every other chain that eventually expands.

At the "height" of B&N's expansion, I still had to travel 2+ hours to get to one. And that was the closest bookstore of ANY quality. That's why ordering books from Amazon was an absolute godsend to begin with. An Amazon store will never open near enough to me for me to frequent it.

[Blossom]

I have BN just down the road. It's been three years and I've yet to step into it. I go to the library store instead. Quarter paperbacks, 75 cents hardbacks, $2 bag sales. You can't beat that. Most are in like new to very good condition.

Sent from my XT1528

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I never expect to see (let alone shop in) an Amazon store in my lifetime.

I'm going to Seattle this week. Maybe I should visit their brick and mortar store.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'm going to Seattle this week. Maybe I should visit their brick and mortar store.

Do it. I live here and I still haven't visited it.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Do it. I live here and I still haven't visited it.

I'll be visiting family. I'll have it on my list, but likely it'll be pretty far down.

You ever hear of Roses Lake? We'll be hanging there over the weekend (my family is way more outdoors-ey than me).

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Not sure what your point is or if you are agreeing or disagreeing with me.

Your local stores may be book wonderlands. I dunno. But can you tell me that any of the Walmarts/grocery stores in your area have expanded their book section in the last ten years? I would guess their share of floor space has shrunk. Which was my whole point.

If you would kindly reread my post, you will see that I said we kept our tiny book section. Emphasis on the TINY. In the last 10 years, I do believe the Walmart on Judge Ely and I-20 in Abilene expanded their book section. The one in Granbury is big too.

No, the share of floor space has not shrunk. The vendor gets a certain amount of floor space in each store. (This does vary by the size of the store). I would bet your book section was shrunk and other media added.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I'll be visiting family. I'll have it on my list, but likely it'll be pretty far down.

You ever hear of Roses Lake? We'll be hanging there over the weekend (my family is way more outdoors-ey than me).

Nope, never heard of it. Is this it?

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Nope, never heard of it. Is this it?

I'm guessing it is. One nice thing about visiting relatives out of state: We are only obligated to show up. I'll find out where the place is as I ride as a passenger in the car

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by darryl

To us, perhaps. But according to this 2016 article:



Amazon no doubt accounts for a good deal of the rest.

Things have steadily gone south for B&N since then.
For calendar year 2016, B&N sold 165M pbooks out of a total 809M.
That is 20%.
The last number I saw had them at 17%. That is half their share when Birders folded and in fact, less than Borders' share when they went under.

In a recent Shatzkin column he said that by the time B&N folds it won't be all that important to tradpub.

Amazon is probably in the 55-60% pbook range.