19th Jun 2008
Save the Independent Bookstore!
According to a Random House funded poll conducted by Zogby, 82% of respondents favored a physical, pages-and-binding book to a digital version. A mere 3% owned an e-book reader, and 80% said they had no plans to purchase one.
The Census Bureau says sales at bookstores jumped 8% in April, and for the first four months of the year, sales were up 5.4%. [Editor's note: What the Census Bureau is doing tracking bookstore sales, I have no idea. I thought they just crawled out of the sludge every ten years to count us.]
So why are bookstores, particularly the independent ones who can’t take a loss and lean on another store to keep afloat, dying out?
From Wednesday’s Collinsville Herald, Madison County, IL:
“Piece of Mind Books has been in Edwardsville since 1991, but it is one of the last of a dying breed of independent bookstores in Madison County. The Book Nook and Faith Talk Company, both independent bookstores in Edwardsville, closed in that last few years. Main Street Books USA, in Collinsville, also closed.”
From Monday’s Republican, regarding the closure of Half Moon Books in Northampton, MA:
“At the entrance of the store, Ham has taped a New Yorker cartoon that shows a bookstore owner closing down his shop while, next door, a woman is receiving a package of books from a postal carrier. Unfortunately, he sees this as the future, which is why he is selling his inventory this month at 40-50 percent off. He decided against looking for someone to buy the business.
‘I wouldn’t feel right about selling the bookstore,’ he said. ‘I don’t think you can make enough money to live on.’”
Here’s that cartoon:
There’s the rub. It’s not the Kindle keeping people from their neighborhood cat-having, quirky-owner-presiding, local-economy-supporting bookstore, it’s the online retailers.
Also from the Zogby poll [via the P-I's Book Patrol]:
Independent bookselling did not fare so well in the survey either:
The top three retail choices for buying books were buying online (77%), buying books from a chain bookstore (76%), and buying from an independent bookstores (49%).When asked if they “regularly” shop at an independent bookseller only 33% said yes and 64% said no!
Emphasis mine. Sigh.
I want to go on a journey across the States, documenting the independent bookstore. While it lasts. Who wants to come? I’ll need a director/videographer — and a lot of money.
I know that this will happen, I hope it’s in my lifetime:
1> People can get anything on the internet, but:
2>They hate to wait for shipping, and:
3>They don’t prosper in suburbia, they wither, so:
4> Dense neighborhoods get built, and
5> People fundamentally want things NOW, which,
6> in fact, is the definition of a neighborhood:
7> a place that has the things that make you feel at home, right NOW.
And I’ll tell ya what I want. A little, tiny, packed bookshop. A good cup of coffee and a way to watch movies with other people without having to trade 2 hours union pay. A babysitter next door, an old pontificater guy 2 doors down and a dog park 3 doors down.
Take all the Barnes and Borders, slice them into 1/80ths and cast them across the land. You could even put one by me if they didn’t require the employees act weird (read:corporate).