Yet Another Bookstores are dying report

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

I usually order new books from Amazon now. If I'm not in a hurry to get a particular book, I'll put it in my wish list and use it to pad out an under $25 order so I can get the free shipping. I usually go to a new bookstore only when the chances of a book I want RIGHT NOW being in stock are reasonably good, I want to browse through books on a particular topic to ensure the one I select has the content I want/need, or to kill time by browsing through the bargain books. I quit ordering books through bookstores quite a few years ago when I ordered a book at a local Borders. They said it would take two weeks to get the book. Three weeks later, I got tired of waiting for the book, ordered it from Amazon, and received it four days later. A week later, Borders called to say the book was in.

In the same boat here. I don't buy many paper books any more, mostly knitting or specialty books, but the ones I do buy usually aren't available at my local bookstores. Even trying to buy one for someone as a gift is nearly impossible. For instance, this past holiday season I attempted to buy Haldeman's Forever War for my brother. No dice. How about Sanderson's Mistborn? Nada. Surely they carry something, anything, by Robin Hobb? Nope.

They're all popular authors in the SF/F category, but because they aren't NYT Bestsellers they're not carried. If I have to wait 2-3 weeks for something to come in, then drive BACK to the store to pick it up… well, it's cheaper and more convenient to just order online and have it shipped directly to my house.

[Juliette]

I also agree with the "people love the idea of bookstores" analysis. And also: since the book of ecommerce, megastores are the less convenient option to online megastores, where you can get services like recensions, "if-you-liked-that-you'd-like-this" recommendations, and, often, free expedited shipping, plus the variety that a bookshop and, above all, a generalist megastore won't carry these days because it doesn't sell this easily.

I remember when going every Saturday into bookshopping was interesting- stopped doing that about seven years ago, when in my city most great bookshop were refurbished or went into a crisis (changing owner quite fast) or closed down. Now we got a couple of specialised stores (Cortina right straight before the university and Hoepli- with a lot of specialities, even if it's not as good as before) and the ever-present Empire of Feltrinelli (hint: in a country where the book market is small, they have bookshops in cinemas and train stations ). Of these, the former are still marginally enjoyable, the latter are too standardised. Which makes bookshopping for presents not the best thing ever.

And, as eric11210 pointed out, there's the question of English or foreign language books. Nowadays it costs a lot less buying them online (even with shipping fees) than buying them into physical shops, because there are duties (what was called once upon a time book's franc/pound); plus we're more informed into what's published now abroad. So all the thrilling of the American Bookstore or the English Bookshop or the Libreria Francese Ile-de-France can't exist anymore, if not for some pretty volume or the general old-books sale.

[HarryT]

The only market in which independent bookshops can survive now is, I think, that of the seller specialising in a particular field. A friend of mine runs a specialist SF and "TV Spinoffs" bookshop (the TV stuff doesn't float my boat, but it's a huge market). Although his prices are much higher than Amazon's, his business thrives because he knows everything there is to know about his market and his customers, and he has dedicated customers all over the world, who know that he can find them that elusive 1985 "Dynasty" calendar, or whatever it is they want.