Yay Failing Book Stores?

[Garmorn]

The most powerful vote you can cast has nothing to do with elections. You vote every time you open your wallet. Sometimes voting for what you want to see more of in the world means paying a bit more.

Yep and all of my gaming stuff is bough at my game store.

But big over priced books stores that control the market by the buying power or little mom and papa stores that use to control the market but limiting what they would carry is not worth the extra pennies.

 

[Ourph]

The most powerful vote you can cast has nothing to do with elections. You vote every time you open your wallet. Sometimes voting for what you want to see more of in the world means paying a bit more.

Not if what you want more of is great deals on books.

 

[Hairfoot]

I'd say "Yay! Failing Borders", considering the five-star fisting it's given indepedent bookshops, but the independents are suffering even worse, so it's a Pyrrhic sort of satisfaction.

 

[Mercurius]

I'd say "Yay! Failing Borders", considering the five-star fisting it's given indepedent bookshops, but the independents are suffering even worse, so it's a Pyrrhic sort of satisfaction.

You kind of took the words right out of my mouth. I find it a tad ironic that we're lamenting the death of Borders when just a few years ago Borders, and its big brother Barnes & Noble, were largely responsible for the death of countless independent bookstores. What is even more ironic, and pleasingly so, is that it may be the (remaining) independent bookstores that weather this current storm while Borders and B&N dwindle away.

The independent bookstores that have survived to this point and will hopefully continue to survive may be doing so because of two factors: 1) customer loyalty, and 2) lower acceptable profit margin. A local independent bookstore, Toadstool in NH, has expanded from one store to three over the last few years and shows no signs of fading away. I don't think they're raking it in, but they're holding steady. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other cases like this.

The point being, an independent bookstore may have a better chance of surviving by virtue of it being able to attain "classic" status. I mean, as we all know D&D can't compete with World of Warcraft, but where WoW will be replaced by (or morph into) the Next Big Thing in a couple years, D&D will live on as a table-top RPG because the form has entered the realm of being a classic, like the violin, pen, or book. There will always be pens, books, violins, and hopefully roleplaying games, but there won't always be Kindles, Casio synthesizers, and MMO video games.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Milli Vanilli - Blame It On The Rain

Well played, sir. Well played.

Not if what you want more of is great deals on books.

What some of us are saying is that becomes a self-defeating technique over the mid-to-long term.

If relentless bargain-hunting already killed your local book shop, and is now killing your local chain.... you're a step closer to simply having bubkis.

There will always be pens, books, violins, and hopefully roleplaying games, but there won't always be Kindles, Casio synthesizers, and MMO video games.

You are correct on the first two. You are so very, very wrong on the second. WoW will go away. Everquest will go away. Specific games will shut down, fizzle out, or collapse. The MMO concept and format? No. That has arrived and will only get bigger unless we specifically re-invent our culture to prevent it.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

YouTube - Milli Vanilli - Blame It On The Rain

Can't . . . find . . . negrep . . . button!

 

[Ourph]

What some of us are saying is that becomes a self-defeating technique over the mid-to-long term.

If relentless bargain-hunting already killed your local book shop, and is now killing your local chain.... you're a step closer to simply having bubkis.

If what I want is great deals on books, those places weren't fulfilling my needs in the first place.

 

[ArcaneSpringboard]

The local B. Dalton just closed; they never got below 50% off, though. I still bought a bunch of books. (FWIW, that was the last bookstore in the city of 150,000 I live in.)

I was in the not-quite-local Borders Express on Friday, and they didn't have any "store closing" signs up, so I guess they're okay. If they did close, that would leave exactly one bookstore (AFAIK) within 25 miles -- a regular Borders. With an ever-shrinking fantasy & SF section, and all of Borders ongoing problems -- not terribly reassuring.

It's kind of a shame...I don't live in the US but when we visit my wife's family I always make a point at spending a few hours at the nearby Borders store, which I do like quite a bit.

 

[Rugger]

Our Waldenbooks in Rutland, Vt is closing next week, too. I've snagged some great deals, but am hugely bummed.

They were the ONLY place within a 2 hour drive that sells any RPG stuff, or has a Sci-Fi/Fantasy section of any appreciable size. This leaves us with 2 tiny, local bookstores that are staffed and stocked by the kind of folks that think DnD and Sci-fi are for weirdos and they don't stock hardly any.

This sucks. I have now have no choice but to order anything online (or go for a nice long drive...)

-Matt

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

How about a city with a population of around than 250,000 without a single bookstore?

Chapter closing on lone Laredo bookstore - Retail - msnbc.com