Posted on 12/20/2008 5:34:21 PM PST by jjonas
I only discovered here last month and it's great to have a proper place for REAL conservatives to talk on the web without being infested with democRAT trolls.
I have been running a small book shop for years. This years sales have been lower than ever due to families struggling and competition from web shops like Amazon. This is a real worry. But around the corner the library is CONSTANTLY packed. There's literally QUEUES OUT OF THE DOOR! How am I supposed to compete with somewhere that basically gives new books away for FREE? They're even planning to SPEND MY MONEY expanding it! What can I do?
And having seen this happen, I worry about other industries. Imagine the government owning big parts of car companies, banks or even healthcare. How are businesses going to be able to compete in this climate when the government is GIVING IT AWAY?
I'm extremely fearful of the next 4 year that other businesses will be crushed like mine is being as MARXISM and 0bama takes over. WE MUST DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO STOP THEM AND NEVER GIVE UP!!!
in before the zot
Cute. Not particularly funny or subtle, but cute.
Move to CA and open a cannabis book shop.
In real life the library is empty except for homeless pedophiles looking at Internet porn. Today's readers are all at Borders, getting blueberry scone crumbs stuck between the pages of the latest issue of Newsweek and then putting it back on the shelf without paying for it after finishing their coffee. ;)
Yeah. Uh, huh. How's the weather in Europe, Jonas?
There's probably year-long queues to get in to see a doctor as well. Gotta love that socialism. You'll die laughing.
Pardon moi. I meant to say communism.
With the “book store” making its only money on the restaurant / food / drinks section.
I had a book signing at a Hastings. The foods / beverages I was told was break even. The books were only profitable for the textbooks section. The only consistent money maker was the movie rentals and video game rentals.
Really sorry dude,, look up wagon wheel makers...IE.. history. All the paper products I need are in the library, including many movies on DVD.
Not only do they have movies, they have a place for people to drop off their old Paperbacks for other to enjoy, For free. Hint,, look for another line of work.
Isn't communism great!!!/s
Don’t worry. If your business catches fire, the communist firemen will be along to put it out.
You obviously haven't gotten the message yet and like many conservatives have not realized that prosperity is a bourgeois fixation. Socialists are not interested in anyone making a living. They are interested only in the pliant masses that will cower before them and thank the state that they haven't been selected to be shot for that day and may live yet another day of servitude. The worker's paradise is at hand and soon will engulf us all. The first among equals will live will, but eventually they too will begin eating their own as they begin to sow the seeds of distrust when those expecting paradise realize nit's a farce. By then it will be too late, a mosque will be on every corner while we will be having abortions the Muslim men will have at six children from each of their four wives and countless concubines. Science long ago solved the riddle of the most hardy species on earth. It has been shown that cockroaches can survive a nuclear holocaust, we will not.
Easy solution: innovate for the market. Libraries are limited in what they can provide, so you must offer the better mousetrap.
Play to your strengths. You have books, and books have information, but for many people, for many reasons, books are hard to read. This is why audio books are so popular today.
In old Turkey, every coffee shop had its own tale teller, and the better they were, the more customers would come in to buy coffee. This is how (the original) Sir Richard Burton compiled The Arabian Nights, from coffee shop (and bar) tales.
Could you create a comfortable place for customers to relax as someone read them stories? Reader’s theater is still a popular medium for plays without sets and costumes.
Bookstores hold book signings all the time, so why not ask popular authors to give speeches on their subjects as well?
Innovate for the market, and the market will come to you.
Nope. Just clueless. The public library was advocated heavily by Benjamin Franklin (a printer no less)as a way for common people to have access to information and could then educate themselves.
Ben Franklin was a promoter of a lot of the public services we take for granted, like postal service and fire departments.
Welcome to FreeRepublic...enjoy your ZOT
I joined the local library a few years ago and found a book that I needed right away for a paper that I was writing for an accelerated Course. I have not been back since.
If the particular book I was needing were available in a local bookstore I never would have wasted my time filling out forms with my private information for “the library.”.
I can scarcely imagine the community where such a library exists that people are lined up to get inside.
Perhaps there was a cold snap going on? Besides, the folks who line up at libraries are likely not ever going to be one of your customers anyhow.
I agree with your concern. In Colorado, public libraries receive lavish funding. People think that libraries are free. My property tax bill indicates that I pay $200 per year to support the library.
The library is competing with private enterprise in another way. The compensation of library employees is much higher than bookstore employees. The retirement compensation (early retirement at 50 or 55) is impossible to compete with.
Unfortunately, you will not find any sympathy among suburban residents. They think that libraries are free. They do not care about private enterprises competing against libraries.
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