[78-L] Bye Bye, Borders

[Bill McClung]

I think books will be printed at least for a couple or three generations.

I'm self-employed as an independent publisher's representative.  I've worked
in trade (non-textbook) book sales for thirty-seven years.  I've managed
Waldenbooks stores and  independent stores, been a house rep and a
commission rep, worked in sales management at Random House, Warner Books,
and Texas Monthly Press.

Watch for a growth in print-on-demand books as book espresso machines become
more common--maybe in the next year or so at your local Kinko's.  Walk in
the door and order a printed book and it will appear.

Watch for all bookstores to carry fewer titles and cultivate fewer sections
as they continue to specialize and make rooom for other types of products.
The day of the big, big bookstore with all subjects covered is what is going
away.

Watch for the successful stores to be more curatorial so that customers want
to come to browse to find books they didn't know they wanted or didn't know
existed.  The illustrated book will long outlive the all-text book and have
more value.

For the past few years my buyers have been worrying about ebooks and Amazon
and the Big Box stores and Sam's/Cosco and margins and the economy but this
Spring most of them have calmed down as they have realized that they can
survive if they continue to connect with their communities and offer value
to their customers.  They are using social media and hosting inventive
events and celebrating their strenghs.  The good independent stores should
be around for the long term.

Amazon is the villian of this piece. Amazon sells books below cost and
refuses to play on a level playing field with bookstores by fighting the
paying of sales taxes.  I'm not advocating an Amazon boycott.  I'm just
saying Amazon is not the bookstore's friend.  And in many ways the
bookstores have brought things on themselves by not being more of what their
customers have been wanting.

We now just have more ways of consuming words.  Printed books will be part
of that mix.   Anybody listen to a radio lately or gone to a movie?  I heard
that was killed off by television.

On Thu, Feb 17, 2011 at 10:23 AM, Malcolm Rockwell <malcolm at 78data.com>wrote:

> Turns out Borders is only closing two stores here in Hawaii; one on the
> Big Island and the other on Kauai. The stores on Maui and Oahu will
> remain. Borders is a mainstay of book lovers on Maui, however I still go
> to Amazon if they don't have what I'm looking for. Our Maui store is
> very well stocked and the nearest thing to a coffee-house we have. Poty,
> we could use a good coffee-house (and, no, Starbucks does NOT count!)
> Mal
>
> *******
>
> On 2/17/2011 5:21 AM, Cary Ginell wrote:
> > Before our Borders closed, I was getting 30% and 40% coupons E-mailed to
> me regularly. Problem is that their stock was never as good as Barnes&
>  Noble's. Never got discounts from B&N.
> >
> > At least I got away with buying one of the floor CD cabinets before they
> closed. It's in my record room now, stocked with jazz CDs.
> >
> > Cary Ginell
> >
> >> Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:44:00 -0500
> >> From: dlennick at sympatico.ca
> >> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> >> Subject: Re: [78-L] Bye Bye, Borders
> >>
> >> But Barnes&  Noble at least has offered discount cards and online
> coupons. I
> >> signed up for a Borders card and found it gave me absolutely nothing.
> >>
> >> The Barnes&  Noble outlet in Rochester has one of the best second-hand
> >> selections I've seen outside of a thrift store. And yes, I still do far
> better
> >> looking online..many's the time I've walked into B&N with a 15% off
> coupon and
> >> not found anything to use it on.
> >>
> >> dl
> >>
> >
>
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